Published in 2020
224 pages
Sophie Walker spent twenty years at Reuters as an international journalist and news editor.
After a long and trying journey supporting her elder daughter through a diagnosis of autism, she started campaigning for disability rights, particularly those of girls on the autism spectrum, for Ambitious About Autism, Include Me TOO and the National Autistic Society.
In 2015, she helped to create the Women’s Equality Party, Britain’s first feminist political party, which she led and grew into a movement of thousands across the UK. Sophie ran for London Mayor in 2016, and in 2017 stood for election to Westminster, campaigning for equal pay, affordable childcare and an end to violence against women. She was named by Vogue in 2018 as one of the ‘New Suffragettes’ and was dubbed by the Daily Telegraph ‘this generation’s Emmeline Pankhurst’. She is now co-director of Activate Collective, a fund to support female community activists to run for political office, and Chief Executive of Young Women’s Trust which campaigns for economic justice for young women. Sophie lives in North London with her husband and four children and is still trying to figure out how to get back to Glasgow, where she grew up.
What is this book about?
“As it becomes depressingly clear that those presently in power are not taking the urgent action required on climate change, poverty and inequality, we must ourselves take action wherever and whenever we can. This book – by one of the most visionary women I have ever met — will tell you how.” —actor, screenwriter and activist, Emma Thompson
Had enough? Feeling hopeless? Don’t give up — join the rebellion.
Activist, journalist, founding leader of the Women’s Equality Party and ‘modern-day suffragette’ (Evening Standard) Sophie Walker presents an inspiring, five-step journey to incorporating activism into our lives.
Featuring stories of new and seasoned activists — including Amika George and Jack Monroe — campaigning on a range of issues from reproductive rights and poverty to the environment and access to education — the book shows us how to see activism not as a series of pitched battles but as a positive, lifelong learning experience.
Escape the numbing effects of despair, learn to channel anger, arm yourself with hope, practise perseverance and connect with others compassionately. Five Rules for Rebellion explains how we can convert our confusion and impatience into a powerful force for change.
