I’m putting the finishing touches on a new story, “Patrimony.” Set in London and Chicago, it’s inspired by the efforts of Mary Macleod MP, Lord Lucas, Liza Campbell and others working for inheritance equality in Great Britain.
They’ve set up shop here on Facebook to circulate a petition signed by 319 Britons as of July 31. It’s nice to see the names of a few friends on the list.
And the campaign has inspired people like author Kathryn Heyman to write to Entrenched Male Bastions That Matter in Publishing, like The London Review of Books, demanding gender equality. You can read her letter, and the dispiriting response, here. Apparently, finding women who can write is “complicated” at the LRB.
Leading journals have also been covering the issue, including this article in the Independent by Jane Merrick and Matthew Bell that gives a good overview.
Bears a striking resemblance to Lily de Gramont, don’t you think? Hat not quite du bon ton. But we certainly catch the whiff of Legroux on the winds of change.
The vote on whether to end gender discrimination that has been entangled with primogeniture for centuries will affect about a thousand women and their “family firms” in Great Britain. More will potentially be affected in Spain. In Pakistan, Madeeha Maqbool’s op/ed piece ran July 23 in the independent weekly’s Friday Times Blog.
If you’re wondering why anyone else would care about Equality for Women in the Peerage… well, you’ll see. “Blood flows in women’s veins too,” says Liza Campbell. “Patrimony” will be ready for publication October 15.
