Dawn Foster

Dawn Foster was a journalist, writing predominantly on social affairs, politics, economics and women's rights. She was co-editor of openDemocracy 50.50. She spent several years working at The Guardian newspaper before freelancing full-time. She was a regular contributor to The Guardian, London Review of Books, Times Literary Supplement, New Humanist, and regularly appeared as a political commentator on BBC's Newsnight and Sky News. She had previously worked in politics and higher education.

Is capitalism destroying feminism? An interview with Dawn Foster

Many assume that women, at the top, will act in the best interests of their gender. Nobody asks if people like Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May wouldn’t instead act in the interests of their class.

By Dawn Foster and Mary Fitzgerald

/ 31 Mar 2016

"Men get more freedom": women and memoir writing

Juliet Jacques spoke to Dawn Foster about her new book, Trans: A Memoir, and the struggles of gender typecasting in the media

By Dawn Foster

/ 28 Sep 2015

Jeremy Corbyn and women: a matter of policy not appointment

Media responses have pointed to the lack of women in the new shadow cabinet, but the policy response to austerity will have more impact on women's lives in the UK.

By Dawn Foster

/ 14 Sep 2015

Women's paid and unpaid work, and the colonial hangover

At the International Association for Feminist Economics conference, social scientists, researchers and economists agree that women's work is still undervalued globally, and dogged by an enduring subconscious colonial mindset.

By Dawn Foster

/ 17 Jul 2015

"Can I help?" Emotional labour and precarity

With increasing precarity post-crash, are women's jobs subject to more psychological labour than ever before?

By Dawn Foster

/ 16 Jun 2015

"There’s nothing left" - women’s future under the Conservatives in the UK

With a Conservative victory in the UK election, even deeper cuts are looming for women already in poverty and at risk, and the suffering will become entrenched.

By Dawn Foster

/ 11 May 2015

When austerity in the UK makes the poorest even poorer

Cuts to welfare reform in Northern Ireland, rolled out two years later than in the rest of the United Kingdom, look set to further impoverish women in an entirely predictable way.

By Dawn Foster

/ 22 Apr 2015

Who Cooked Adam Smith’s Dinner? Women and work post-crash

The value of women’s unpaid and undervalued work is slowly beginning to be appreciated: the time is right for a re-examination of who gets paid, how much, and for what

By Dawn Foster

/ 6 Mar 2015

Trapped: women fleeing violence in the UK

The raft of cuts affecting the women's sector, and election promises made by Labour and the Conservatives not to increase public spending, represent the biggest threat to domestic violence services and to women’s lives.

By Dawn Foster

/ 9 Feb 2015

The cuts hit home: austerity in Oxford

Across the UK different services are bearing the brunt of cuts in different areas. In Oxfordshire, the county which encompasses the Prime Minister's constituency, domestic violence and homelessness services are facing a staggering 38% cut in funding.

By Dawn Foster

/ 22 Jan 2015

Women in prison: the cycle of violence

Most women in prison in Britain have experienced sexual or domestic violence, yet the system fails to address their needs and further victimises them. For some, it is the end of the road.

By Dawn Foster

/ 3 Dec 2014

Whose recovery?: Gendered austerity in the UK

The impact of government spending cuts, combined with structural sexism in the UK, means that for British women, news of an economic recovery means nothing to their daily lives.

By Dawn Foster

/ 4 Aug 2014