We change the world by how we relate to other people and how we communicate.

To look beyond the narrow confines anchored by a dominant hermeneutic we need to attempt to deconstruct absolutism. The visceral implication of absolutism that the term feminism carries is one that I would argue has been imposed by the omission and misinterpretation of what women say and by damaging and limiting media imagery. Our educational establishments and our media systems only sporadically and minimalistically pay tribute to the celebration of womens contribution to the fabric of our society. On top of this we are suffused with limiting and sexualised imagery that appears to value beauty and wealth above other facets.

In contemporary Britain we rarely hear about women at the cutting edge of politics, activism, science, technology, business, or comedy, just for a few examples. I would argue that it is timely, if not long overdue, to commemorate successful women that have shaped our world. As a society we ought to re-evaluate the hidden, forgotten, unrecognised and underplayed contributors to society, those who are written out of the dominant discourse, or simply those whose memory is carried on by oral, popular, or even familial traditions. Empowering women enhances and strengthens society as a whole and underpins the notion of a truly inclusive society.

A recognition of the history behind the apparent bounties that we as women in the UK seem to enjoy today would be a springboard for contemporary women to recognise and speak up for the history of the struggle for greater rights and the increasingly unsteady foothold that is destabilising the coherence of those rights.

Some routes of enquiry include:

• How culture and specifically remembrance operate and inform our views on the world in relation to gender?

• What can we say about the social and cultural production of women and gender in history?

• How does this enquiry contribute to understanding where we are in the world today?

• In what ways can this enquiry help us to tackle prescient issues such as world hunger, mortality and morbidity, sexual violence, prostitution and the trafficking of women and children in the world today?

You are the system and the system is you.