Marty Radlett | head of Panos London’s reproductive health and gender programme

Panos London’s work on reproductive health and gender was born when Judy Mirsky (then editor of our WorldAIDS newsletter) became convinced that the AIDS pandemic would never be understood - nor prevention measures established to protect the most vulnerable: women and girls - without analysing and addressing patriarchy and women’s second class status. 

The 1990 book Triple jeopardy: women and AIDS marked this transition in our thinking. But things really kicked off at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo. 

It was there, at a media seminar, that we launched our publication Private decisions, pubic debate: women, reproduction and population. It was a landmark event that put us on the map.

A Panos best-seller and international prize-winner, the book of media fellowships represented our commitment to working with journalists - and training them - to investigate and write about complex, controversial and often taboo issues of women’s reproductive health and rights.

Just how contentious these subjects were was demonstrated when Islamic militants threatened the safety of ICPD participants. The Egyptian army – armed to the teeth - was drafted to protect the conference.

Since then, a hallmark of all our work has been collaboration with journalists of both sexes. We are especially gratified that several now senior practitioners attest that their involvement with Panos was instrumental in directing and shaping their subsequent careers.

Judy and I were chalk (the thinker) and cheese (the pragmatist); however, we complimented each other well. By 2000 we had specialised: Judy was concerned with research and policy (safety in childbirth, gender violence in schools) and I wanted to address political issues impacting on women’s rights (Bush’s insistence on abstinence-only sex education and international AIDS funding), primarily through the Panos Features service.

Panos London later decided to mainstream ‘gender’ activities across all its programmes. Perhaps this was a reflection of the polarised debates within the women’s health movement at the time: reproductive health was to some extent regarded as a donor-driven, western feminist agenda.

Nevertheless, the human and written legacy of 14 years of the reproductive health and gender programme continues to endure, both in London and across the Panos network.

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