Barbara Rogers is an excellent example of how not to have a brilliant career. Don’t be too independent! Don’t be outspoken! Don’t resign from your job! Keep quiet!

Originally a linguist who speaks fluent French and Russian - and spent a year in Moscow in the depths of 1968 - Barbara joined the diplomatic service more or less by accident and was assigned to the southern Africa department in 1970. Gobsmacked by what looked like a subsidise-apartheid policy, and bemused by policy on Namibia (then South West Africa) she resigned, was asked to stay, and was then sacked for writing to her MP. She went on to research and write articles and books on southern Africa, working for the United Nations on various contracts and also working for Rep Charles Diggs, then an influential member of the US Congress and Chair of the Africa Subcommittee. She was instrumental in closing down an illicit Rhodesian sanctions-busting scam, helped gear up the churches and public bodies to boycott South Africa economically, and wrote several books including an important bibliography on Namibia.

After six years of this Barbara decided to work on international development issues and produced a paper on women in development for the UN Development Programme. She then started an MPhil on the topic at the University of East Anglia – they would not accept the work for the degree, but it was published as “The Domestication of Women” which has been an important book on the topic and gone round the world. However, the logic of the book, she felt, was that Third World women should work out their own issues for themselves – and western women might be better employed sorting out their own countries, if they could. She turned down the offer of a job in UNDP.

She then wrote on women’s issues within Britain, producing “52%” which is a review of major political issues and how women relate to them; and “Men Only” – a study of how men organise, formally and informally, in a way which is often discriminatory towards women. The Equal Opportunities Commission later picked up her suggestion than women-only and men-only organisations should be accepted, but that as soon as they became mixed then equal rights should prevail. This still has a long way to go in many Establishment institutions like golf clubs or West End clubs, as well as working men’s clubs around the country.

Barbara was a founder member and Editor of Everywoman magazine, and lasted nine years before a particularly nasty lockout (led by the male solicitor) put an end to it all. She would still like to publish a magazine, if anyone out there is interested…

Unemployment led her to apply for any job that moved, and she worked for the LV Group as trade union liaison officer, and then job-shared as Chief Executive of Anti-Slavery International. She then got a job managing the Charity Centre in London, which led to her opening her own meetings and training venue, The Meeting Place, which has been running for about eight years near Euston Station. The website is www.meetingplacelondon.com, and women’s organisations can ask for a discount! Barbara is a believer in self-employment as a real option for some women who don’t like being bossed about.

Barbara has been a Labour activist and Islington councillor, and spent some time looking for a parliamentary candidacy. She has also been active for a long time in the co-operative movement and for a total of six years she was an elected Board member of one of the biggest businesses in the country, Co-operative Retail Services (CRS). She also hoped to contribute to some public appointments but obviously her face does not fit this particular scene. She is no longer a Labour Party member because she is at odds with the policies of the Blair administration.

Barbara plans to write another book–on step-parenting, called Exes and Extras. Another possibility is a book called Islands of Privilege about elite education, clubs, organisations etc which keep people down on the basis of race, gender, money - you name it. Alternatively, she still thinks there is a space for a magazine for serious women - this time weekly, and full of job ads.