Sick of It: The Global Fight for Women's Health

This event is part of the Cambridge Literary Festival.

Why are women still dying across the world from causes we know how to prevent? In ' Sick of It: The Global Fight for Women’s Health', shortlisted for the 2025 British Academy Book Prize, award-winning academic Professor Sophie Harman delivers a bold, urgent and eye-opening call to action.

Drawing on frontline case studies – from abortion rights and maternal healthcare to conflict zones and global health policy – Sophie shows how women’s health is repeatedly caught in the crossfire of global politics, misused and neglected by those in power. Clear, accessible and deeply compelling, 'Sick of It' exposes the human cost of political failure while offering smart, practical solutions for change. Join Sophie Harman to explore why this crisis persists, how women’s bodies have become political battlegrounds, and what governments – and all of us – can do to help fix it.

In conversation with journalist Rosie Goldsmith.

Speaker: Sophie Harman

Sophie Harman is a Professor of International Politics at Queen Mary University of London with over fifteen years of experience working on global health politics.

She's worked in Kenya, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia, Geneva and Washington DC, for organisations including UN Women and The Fawcett Society. She's written for The Guardian, Independent, New Statesman, The Conversation, and Tortoise.

In 2019 she was nominated for a BAFTA for outstanding debut by a British writer, director or producer for the narrative feature film she co-wrote and produced, 'Pili'.

Photo of 'Sick of It' above: Greg Allen