“At a time when Senator Joseph McCarthy’s communist witch-hunt had broadened to target gay people, applicants for certain government jobs had to undergo a lie detector test regarding their sexual orientation, and the police would raid private parties as well as gay and lesbian bars,” Kira explains. “Martin and Lyon’s activism for gay rights and women’s rights continued throughout their lives. In February 2004 they were the first gay couple to be married in San Francisco.”

In 1976, Susie Orbach co-established The Women’s Therapy Centre in New York with Luise Eichenbaum. It was an innovation set to offer all women access to psychotherapy regardless of their sexual orientation, disability, cultural or social background, immigrant status, previous psychiatric history, age or financial situation. For the last forty years, the WTC has made extensive contributions to understanding the female experience of mental health problems.

Bidisha is the author of 5 books and has prolific journalistic credits both national and international. As a broadcaster, she’s worked across BBC Radio and her television documentaries include 'The Secret Life of Books' which explored 'Jane Eyre' in a contemporary context.

Her brilliant fifth book 'Asylum and Exile: The Hidden Voices of London' was published by Seagull Books and Chicago University Press in March 2015, and was a result of her outreach work with asylum seekers and refugees living in the UK capital.

Poet, author and founder of Sister Spit –  ‘a multi-media explosion’ of live performance, celebrating queer culture, lesbianism and feminism – Michelle Tea is a serious talent at the heart of the alternative literary scene in America.

Tea’s latest release is her collaboration with Beth Ditto on the artist’s memoir, 'Coal To Diamonds', which was published in October last year. The pair developed the book through many in depth conversations about Ditto’s varied life experiences.

Years after suffering sexual attack, nurse Pavan Amara suffered a difficult relationship with her body. After conducting research with other women survivors, she found a common problem: the women weren’t accessing medical care.

Recognising the need for a specific support of women who have suffered sexual violence, Pavan worked with the NHS to create 'My Body Back', a project set to grow nationwide specialist clinics for the medical care of women who’ve suffered rape and sexual assault.

On 22 Feburary 1943, Sophie Scholl, German revolutionary, was sentenced to death for crimes of treason by the People’s Court in Germany. Later that same day, she was executed by guillotine in Munich-Stedelheim Prison. She was only 21 years old. Her crime?

Sophie was a courageous, visionary activist and a founding member of The White Rose, a non-violent resistance group working to immobilise Germany’s people and facilitate opposition to the Nazi dictatorship.

Daphne Du Maurier was twenty when she wrote 'The Doll'. If you know this before you embark on the story, you might be expecting a youthful narrative, lighter themes, the marks of a talent not yet fully realised. In fact, 'The Doll' is remarkably crafted, already displaying her infamous command of narrative, and a wisdom far exceeding her years.

We should consider the context in which Du Maurier was writing; such a bold acknowledgement of independent female sexual desire, and the way in which this independence might destroy or invalidate the male, is astonishing in its bravery. 

Shereen El Feki is a writer, broadcaster and academic. Former vice-chair of the UN’s Global Commission on HIV and the Law, she is also an award-winning journalist and a TED Global Fellow.

In her book, 'Sex and the Citadel', she uses sexuality as a lens through which to explore the changing Arab world, noting how the larger forces of politics, economics, religion, tradition and gender shape attitudes to sex.