Harriet Marsden

New Statesman • 17th February 2023

Nicola Sturgeon’s resignation marks the end of the feminist moment

“I will always be a voice for inclusion,” Nicola Sturgeon told reporters on Wednesday morning when she announced her resignation after eight years as First Minister of Scotland – the first woman in the role. “I will always be a feminist.” What she will no longer be is one of the world’s few female voices of power.

The Independent • 23rd July 2022

Opinion: Stop inviting me to your pointless WhatsApp groups

Squinting at my phone screen, I wondered if I was losing my mind – as well as my vision. I could have sworn Rosie’s 30th birthday party was taking place at the end of the month. So why were multiple strangers jabbering about plans for tonight? I was in fact, in two separate WhatsApp groups – both for Rosie’s 30th.

Metro • 3rd March 2022

As a Chelsea fan Abramovich's reluctance to confront Putin never sat right

We Chelsea fans are accustomed to defending ourselves. Ever since Roman Abramovich, one of Russia’s richest men, bought the club for £140million in 2003, investing huge amounts to buy new players and reverse the club’s fortunes, the Blues have mockingly been known as Chelski FC. But now, perhaps, no more?

Metro • 1st February 2022

Football's #MeToo has gone unnoticed - now could be the moment that changes

The world of elite football is unwelcoming to women. Intimidated as spectators, derided as WAGs, dismissed as commentators, ignored as competitors. Despite that, women have fought for space in the beautiful game, as fans or players. Football is a common language, we say, that transcends gender or nation.

Metro • 16th March 2021

Women are tired - and we don't know how to change things anymore

Standing by the bandstand, the first thing I noted was the scent; of candles burning, of flowers and a hundred different perfumes. Having walked the long muddy pathway through Clapham Common, flanked by a gentle flow of masked women, I’d reached the epicentre. Cards and flowers overwhelmed the site and for a second I was reminded, jarringly, of Princess Diana’s funeral. In the air was a sense of quiet sadness, but also catharsis: to be doing something – anything – after days of impotent frust

Foreign Policy • 8th January 2021

As Britain Gawps at U.S. Chaos, Violence Could Cross the Atlantic

Ever since a reality TV personality was elected president of the United States, British political journalists have gotten into the habit of staying up all night to gawk. Elections, by-elections, Twitter storms, impeachment proceedings—thanks to the time difference, we wake up and predict what might happen across the pond and then fight sleep to watch events unfold.

Metro • 27th October 2020

I worry I might never watch live football with my 94-year-old grandad again

On the list of first things you’ll never forget, a Premier League football match comes close to the top. I was five years old, and Chelsea were playing Newcastle at home in Stamford Bridge. Totally discombobulated by the crowds, I clung to my grandfather’s hand as he manoeuvred me through the lofty herds, practically dribbling me between their legs like an expert forward.

The Huffington Post • 23rd September 2020

If You're Complaining About 'Lockdown 2.0', You're Showing Your Coronavirus Privilege

Navigating the pandemic has become a numbers game. Last Monday, we met the “rule of six” – a new restriction which dictates that no more than six people may meet at any time – with an extensive list of caveats that absolutely do not include mingling. (These rules were published 23 minutes before they came into effect, which set most of late-night, doom-scrolling Twitter on fire.)

Metro • 3rd June 2020

I'm not ready for lockdown to end - it scares me

Lockdown has begun to ease. There are tentative smiles beneath ill-fitting masks, people are starting to make plans again, while London finally smells like summer – and all I can feel is dread.

The Independent • 14th May 2020

Sorry, paying your cleaner is not a feminist issue – it's a moral responsibility

According to the latest government guidelines, cleaners can now return to work in people’s homes provided they – and everyone in the home – appear healthy. (For the purposes of this article, we’re talking about domestic cleaners paid cash in hand with no contract or legal employment rights, rather than agency-contracted workers or those who clean our country’s offices at night: a whole other headache.) There are some caveats – hand-washing, window opening, and of course that all-important two m

Lit Media • 2nd May 2020

Could COVID-19 Spark The Beginning Of Social Reforms?

On Thursday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson told us that the UK was “past the peak” of the COVID-19 epidemic. Breathlessly, he said that “we can now see the sunlight.” The sun actually did shine through the rain, and a weary nation asked itself: could the end be in sight?

The Huffington Post • 13th March 2020

I Have Zero Patience For Middle-Class Whinging About Coronavirus

Right, that’s it. I’ve run out of patience. The next middle-class self-employed creative to whine about working from home thanks to coronavirus is going to get a smack.

Metro • 20th January 2020

Why it's time to mute 'gin enthusiast' and any other dating app cliche

My grandfather’s favourite quote is: ‘Better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt.’ Clearly, my nonagenarian pop hasn’t spent much time on Tinder. I hope. Because this advice doesn’t hold for dating apps. Most people I know wouldn’t swipe right for a purely pictorial profile – no words looks lazy at best, and unpleasantly narcissistic at worst (sorry Ronan Keating, but on Hinge or Bumble you really don’t say it best when you say nothing at all). Which means

The Sun • 18th January 2020

Piers Morgan is no sexist, he just thrives off outrage - now here's a lesson for the embattled TV host

Piers Morgan found himself in yet another sexism storm this week after describing Laura Tobin’s outfit on GMB as “skintight hotpants” she wore “deliberately to get people to notice”.

The Independent • 11th November 2019

Corbyn’s response to Bolivia shows how wrong the left is to keep fetishising socialism in Latin America

Bad left-wing takes on Latin America are like an injection: you know it’s coming but there’s still a prick. And so it was last night when, after weeks of unrest and violent protests following the disputed October elections, Bolivia’s president Evo Morales finally resigned.

The Independent • 27th August 2019

The Amazon isn't in trouble because of Bolsonaro -- it's all about Bolivia

The Amazon is burning, and everybody is looking to Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro. They should be looking a little further south. In Bolivia, wildfires have been rampaging across the dry savannah of the country for weeks. On the southwest border with Paraguay and Brazil, at least 1 million hectares of farmland have been destroyed.

The Huffington Post • 20th August 2019

Gagging Orders Clearly Discriminate Against Women – So Why Are They Still Allowed?

If you’ve got nothing to hide, so they say, you’ve got nothing to fear. Which begs the question: why, in our era of transparency, do companies still try to exploit gagging orders – and expect it not to come back to bite them?

The Times • 10th June 2019

Plenty of empty seats but England and Scotland fans unite behind women’s game

To say that the Allianz Riviera stadium in Nice, the venue of yesterday’s much-hyped World Cup meeting between England and Scotland, is poorly located is something of an understatement.

Drugstore Culture • 14th November 2018

The new Arkansas abortion law is just the beginning - Roe v Wade is under threat

It has become de rigueur, ever since the wildly successful television adaptation, to make a world-weary reference to Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale in response to erosions of gender equality, particularly women’s reproductive rights. Is this how Gilead starts?

The Independent • 25th August 2018

Allowing English women to take the abortion pill at home is good news – and now we're coming for you, Northern Ireland

As landmark women’s health text Our Bodies, Ourselves put it in 1970, abortion is “our right ... as women to control our own bodies. The existence of any abortion laws (however ‘liberal’) denies this right.” Those rights are advancing in some parts of the UK, and stalling in others. The latest development is that women in England will soon be able to take an abortion pill at home: a small but significant step forward that many welcome. Yet in Northern Ireland, women still face draconian laws.