A word About women

‘There’s been a revolution in my lifetime in the opportunities for women, but there’s still a long way to go’

Professor Mary Beard, the Cambridge University classicist and TV broadcaster, was made a dame in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List. Her last book, a manifesto tackling the thorny issue of Women & Power, was a bestseller, and she’s fronted TV documentaries on rome and Pompeii, and presented episodes of Civilisations.

there’s been a revolution in my lifetime in the opportunities for women. you even see women over 50 on television now, and that is a change to celebrate. but there is still a long way to go. It is still the case that older women are supposed to try and look younger. but I like to say, “look at me. this is what a 63-year-old woman looks like.” that’s not to say you can’t make statements with your appearance – I’ve just had a pink streak put in my white hair, and that’s pretty symbolic!

the role of women in public life is still surprisingly limited, despite the fact that we’ve had two female Prime Ministers. around 4% of MPs were female in the 1970s and now it’s around 30%. yet there is still a sense that women, even when they “get on”, take female roles. after all, we have never had a woman Chancellor of the Exchequer, and women still tend to be seen, and heard, as less authoritative than men.

the right to be taken seriously can be very difficult for women to achieve. there’s a centuries-old tradition of women’s voices being silenced. I’ve been on the receiving end of vicious comments, on twitter in particular, after appearing on tV panel shows. but

I don’t do what you’re advised to do; I mean I don’t block them! that seems to me another way of getting women to be quiet. Instead I tend to reply politely and ask them to take the tweet down, or point out that they seem to have misunderstood me, or whatever. It works more often than you would think… but not always. the key is not to get cross.

looking back, I’m pleased I didn’t do television when I was young. It is a strange world – it puts you in the public eye, and you need a good deal of resilience. being on tV is great fun, but it doesn’t define me. I feel happy that I’m an academic who also does broadcasting. and in terms of achievements, I am proudest of writing my books, really. I hope they will last.

of course I was also delighted to be made a Dame in the Queen’s birthday Honours list. I felt a combination of being very chuffed, and slightly silly. the title “‘Dame” really does remind one of a pantomime, doesn’t it? but I felt especially pleased for my subject. the fact that someone in the 21st century could be honoured for studying the Greeks and Romans is a tribute to the whole profession.

It was my teachers at Newnham College, Cambridge, who taught me to be fearless. My old director of studies there, Joyce Reynolds, now lives opposite me. she will be 100 in December, and she is still inspirational.

My own woman of the year for

2018 is Chimamanda Ngozi adichie, who won the PEN Pinter Prize for a writer who shows a “fierce intellectual determination… to define the real truth of our lives and our societies”. she does that in spades, both in her novels and in her feminist writing. she is a real role model.

Finally, my New year message to all women is simple: Don’t be silenced! w&h