SINEAD BURKE
Diversity advocate
and lecturer
“In any fight for equality, we need
to make sure that we’re not just
replacing one type of majority with
another. That, in our fight for gender
equality, we’re not just making sure
that those in power are white, straight,
cisgender, able-bodied, middle-class
women. We need to be constantly
asking whose voices are not in the
world, which perspectives are not
being considered, and make sure
that change occurs with as much
intersectionality as possible. And we
can’t leave all the responsibility to
those who are ‘othered’ in society
to step forward and talk about their
most vulnerable moments. We need to
be deliberately creating those spaces.
I’m always conscious that I can only
speak for me, but people assume that
every little person has my experience,
that every disabled person feels,
thinks, talks, acts, moves like me.
Yet the experiences of women of
colour – or of queer, disabled women- are very different from mine. We
have to be careful that we do not
create a new world where so many
people are still excluded.”
Custom-made lace cape and wool/
silk dress, to order, Prada. Shoes,
from a selection, Salvatore Ferragamo.
Fashion editor: Edward Enninful.
Hair: Serge Normant. Make-up: Val
Garland. Nails: Lorraine Griffin09-19-WELL-ForcesForChange.indd 248 10/07/2019 16:21