SheFest, Sheffield’s Fringe Festival for International Women's Day, is a programme of events celebrating women with the main event on Saturday 11th March. The SheFest Exhibition (title tbc) is an opportunity for artists to explore issues around womanhood and feminism.

SheFest, Sheffield’s Fringe Festival for International Women's Day, is a programme of events celebrating women with the main event on Saturday 11th March. The festival, running from 6th-12th March, features a wide range of inclusive and celebratory events which aim to engage women from all over the city! 

The SheFest exhibition (1st – 15th March 2017) is one of these many events and will run for the duration of the festival. This year the exhibition aims to challenge the ways in which our misogynistic world alters the perceptions that both women and men have of themselves and others. It will also address how the patriarchy affects the daily lives of women and how firmly these attitudes are ingrained into society today.

Co-curator Liz Dickinson voices her personal experience with these issues:

“Although I consider myself to be a proactive feminist, there are still things that I struggle with as a direct consequence of the patriarchy. For example, not feeling comfortable with my physical appearance because of patriarchal beauty ideals or not feeling confident enough to challenge men who are acting inappropriately for fear of being threatened or mocked.”

Female empowerment is important but there are still so many barriers preventing women from reaching their full potential and being treated equally in a straight white male dominated world.