Today, women in advanced capitalist societies are encouraged to ‘lean in’ while the media and government champion women who ‘have it all’.
Yet these and other powerful cultural narratives, alongside toxic workplace structures, and deep-seated sexist norms and practices, shape gender expectations, stymie possibilities, and suppress rage among women who sacrifice careers as they head home to care for their families.
Join us to discuss these issues in a conversation with Baroness Ariane de Rothschild, Professor Rosalind Gill and Dr Shani Orgad. The discussion will be followed by a reception to celebrate the publication of Shani Orgad’s book Heading Home: Motherhood, Work, and the Failed Promise of Equality (Columbia University Press).
Twitter Hashtag for this event: #HeadingHome
Baroness Ariane de Rothschild was born in San Salvador and grew up in Latin America and in Africa. After completing her business studies in Paris and New-York, she engaged in an active career in banking with Société Générale and AIG. In 2015, she was appointed President of the Executive Committee of the Edmond de Rothschild Group. Today, she heads all activities of the group extending to finance, wines, hotel management and private equity. Through an international network of family foundations, she is also deeply committed to social empowerment in the arts, entrepreneurship, science and health, particularly in Israel. She resides in Geneva, Switzerland with her husband, Baron Benjamin de Rothschild, and their four daughters.
Rosalind Gill (@RosalindGillLdn) is Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis at City, University of London. She is author many books on gender, sexuality, media, new technologies, work and the body, including Aesthetic Labour (with Ana Elias and Christina Scharff, Palgrave 2017) and Mediated Intimacy: Sex Advice in Media Culture (with Meg-John Barker and Laura Harvey, Polity 2019). She is working on a book about women’s confidence.
Shani Orgad is Associate Professor in the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Her research examines public discourses about gender equality in the workplace and media representations of women and work. She is the author of Storytelling Online: Talking Breast Cancer on the Internet (Peter Lang 2005), Media Representation and the Global Imagination (Polity 2012), Caring in Crisis? Humanitarianism, the Public and NGOs (with Bruna Seu, Palgrave 2017), and Heading Home: Motherhood, Work, and the Failed Promise of Equality (Columbia University Press 2019).
Sarah Banet-Weiser (@sbanetweiser) is Professor of Media and Communications and Head of the Department of Media and Communications at LSE. Her research is deeply interdisciplinary, as is her scholarly editorial work. She was formerly the editor of the flagship journal of the American Studies Association, American Quarterly, and was the founding co-editor of the New York University Press book series, Critical Cultural Communication Studies.
The LSE Department of Media and Communications (@MediaLSE) is a world-leading centre for education and research in communication and media studies at the heart of LSE’s academic community in central London. The Department was ranked #1 in the UK and #3 globally in its field (2018 QS World University Rankings).