Gold for men but Silver for women: Sharron Davies and Angela Saini at Oxford Literary Festival
The recent nine-day Oxford Literary Festival was jam-packed with events. With eight reviews, n2 could barely scrape the surface, but here’s a taste of what we saw. The 2025 festival takes place between Saturday, March 29 and Sunday, April 6, keep your diary free.
Sharron Davies and Angela Saini at the Oxford Literary Festival on Saturday, March 16 and Thursday 21
Review by JON LEWIS
IN 1980, British Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies won a silver medal in the individual medley in a race won by E German Petra Schneider. E Germany won many of the women’s races 123 and Schneider and her teammates were subsequently found to have won illegally, having taken testosterone.
Davies, in her talk in the Sheldonian Theatre about her book Unfair Play: The Battle for Women’s Sport, says “nothing was done to stop it”.
All these years later, Davies has still not been given a gold medal after the cheating was exposed and the medal tables have not been corrected. Teammates who came fourth have not been awarded golds, nor had the careers and opportunities Davies had by winning a medal.
Davies accuses the International Olympic Committee of misogyny and is now campaigning against sporting associations’ decisions to allow trans athletes with male genitalia with their higher levels of testosterone to compete against women. Davies stresses she is not transphobic and believes trans athletes should compete against each other, but in raising the issue, she has been “cancelled everywhere except the BBC Sports Department. No quiz shows for years, numerous charities cancelled me as ambassador”.
Journalist Angela Saini, in her talk in the Weston Lecture Theatre about her book The Patriarchs, outlines how historically men gained so much power in societies across the world.
Although there have been pockets of matriarchal societies, families have tended to have been ruled by fathers, countries by kings, belief systems dominated by a male god, with every level of society following suit.
Saini suggests that it is the rise of the state where women start to disappear from historical records, the men given the role of fighting and defending the land, the women in providing the children. She cites President Putin’s appeal to Russians to enlist in the army “to be a man”.
With women moving to another family to marry, females have been framed as secondary to men in every household. So, in Davies’ world, women’s place is historically in silver position. Saini’s research suggests that the IOC remains a symbol of the patriarchy.
Visit a-series-of-unfortunate-murders-9360212 for reviews of Lemony Snicket and and Holly Jackson at the Oxford Literary Festival.
Visit oxford-literary-festival-inspiring-and-stimulating-9360209 for reviews of Jacqueline Wilson, Tom Holland, Paul Lynch and Mary Morrissy at Oxford Literary Festival.
