The whole of the Astor100 team were delighted and extraordinarily proud to hear the news that the Alexis Bowater, Chair of the Nancy Astor Statue Committee received an OBE in the Platinum Jubilee Honours list for services to the Safety and Equality of Women.
Alexis is a journalist and campaigner who has worked to combat violence against women and girls and whose personal sacrifice was integral to the passing of legislation surrounding stalking. Alexis, who was a former ITV news presenter in the west country, was relentlessly stalked by a man who was jailed in 2009. Reflecting on her OBE, Alexis stressed that violence towards women is “everybody’s responsibility” and that society must have a conversation about it. She called the issue the new pandemic – not just “a criminal justice issue. It’s a public health issue. It’s an issue for all of us.” She went on to describe it as “the backdrop to the theatre of the lives of 51% of the population of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, this is not a problem that is going away. It’s a problem that we all need to address collectively as a society. The behaviour that we walk past is the behaviour that we tolerate and it’s the behaviour that we have to live with. So, what we need to do, is be a battalion and work together meaningfully to change things for the better.”
You can hear Alexis speak of how she felt ‘proud and privileged’ to receive the honour here https://twitter.com/cabinetofficeuk/status/1533459668495892481
or if you do not have access to twitter you can hear in full here https://www.msn.com/en-gb/lifestyle/relationships/campaigner-alexis-bowater-proud-and-privileged-for-receiving-obe/vi-AAXYLdG
