Men Who Hate Women: From Incels to Pickup Artists: The Truth about Extreme Misogyny and How it Affects Us All

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of gender discrimination, bullying, sexual violence and harassment, graphic violence, physical abuse, emotional abuse, and death.

Laura Bates is a feminist writer and activist based in England. In 2012, she founded the Everyday Sexism Project, a website encouraging people of all genders to share their experiences with sexism in their everyday lives. It set out to highlight the correlation between instances of normalized sexist behavior like catcalling and “workplace banter” to extreme levels of sexual violence and rape. The project quickly went viral, amassing over 200,000 entries from people around the world describing their experiences with sexism and gender discrimination. 

The Everyday Sexism Project spawned several other campaigns against gender inequality and sexism, such as those targeting sexual harassment and child sexual abuse. It also sparked international conversations, informed public policy, and led to tangible institutional changes, like changing Facebook’s policies on domestic and sexual violence content and overhauling England’s sexual education curriculum in schools to include lessons on sexual consent and healthy relationships. Bates herself worked closely with the Department of Education to shape the curriculum reforms. 

Since launching the project, Bates received a slew of online backlash and harassment—particularly from men—which she discusses both in her first book Everyday Sexism (2014) and in Men Who Hate Women.