Sue Lees
Sue Lees (16 June 1941 – 17 September 2002) was an English academic, activist, feminist and writer. She was a lecturer on social work at the Middlesex Polytechnic and the University of York in the 1960s before working as professor of women's studies at the Polytechnic of North London (now the London Metropolitan University) from 1976 to 1993. Lees helped co-establish the Women's Studies Network (UK) Association and the first undergraduate Bachelor of Arts degree course in women's studies in the United Kingdom. She was Polytechnic of North London's centre for research in ethnicity and gender between 1993 and 1997. Lees authored five books between 1986 and 1997 and influenced the 1997 New Labour government to change how women were treated at rape trials. She consulted the Channel 4 television series Dispatches on programmes on rape. Early life On 16 June 1941, Lees was born into a middle-class family in India. She was the youngest daughter of an executive of the Shell Oil Company. When Lees was six years old, she was sent to a boarding school in England to keep her away from the Indian independence movement. After her family was reunited, she attended Queen's College, London. Lees went on to matriculate to University of Edinburgh studying for a social policy diploma, earning the Radzinowicz Prize in Criminology. She then studied for a social studies degree at Birkbeck College and subsequently a social studies degree at the London School of Economics. Career Lees worked as a probation officer and a child care officer, before being appointed lecturer on social work at the Middlesex Polytechnic and the University of York in the 1960s; she was dismayed at how her male colleagues behaved. In 1976, Lees joined the Polytechnic of North London (now the London Metropolitan University) as professor of women's studies. She began in the Department of Applied Studies and helped operate the applied studies course, supporting low-achieving students by holding meetings telling them it was a negative on radical education and not their own ability and potential. Lees was supported by the Council for National Academic Awards and the examiners. She assisted in the setting up of the Women's Studies Network (UK) Association, serving as joint-chair, and co-established the first undergraduate Bachelor of Arts degree course in women's studies in the United Kingdom. Lees got influenced by the early women's liberation movement and was a co-opt member of the Women's Committee on Islington London Borough Council for four years and contributed to the radical-left wing community paper Islington Gutter Press. When Equal Opportunities officers were appointed to the Polytechnic of North London, she protected the subject as well as women's studies. In 1986, she published her first book, Losing Out: Slags or Drags?. Lees focused on young women and education in the book using analysis. Her second book, a study called Sugar And Spice, Sexuality And Adolescent Girls, followed in 1993. Lees reviewed how boys and girls relate to each other and how boys' reputation is improved by insinuating