The path to radical social change is never smooth - there are many questions to address. Who runs the discourse; who is excluded, and why? Is #metoo a flash in the pan? Will there be a backlash, and what might that look like? And most importantly, how do we ensure that this debate produces substantive change?

This issue of Granta is about gender: about what it means to be born a woman, and to become a woman. It’s about patriarchy, feminist values and all the ways in which our culture is creakily changing. It’s about empowerment, activism and wit.