Julie Bindel - Early Career, Activism and Research

Early Career, Activism and Research

Julie Bindel was a teenager in Leeds when she became involved in feminism in 1979, through meeting feminists who were then campaigning about sexual violence and the complacency of the police at the time of the Yorkshire Ripper, Peter Sutcliffe. "The Yorkshire Ripper case was my reason for becoming a campaigner against sexual violence". Sutcliffe was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1981 for murdering thirteen women between 1975 and 1980. She states, "I was angry, like many others, that the police only really seemed to step up the investigation when the first 'non-prostitute' was killed." Bindel was angry about the police's advice for women to stay indoors although many had jobs which required them to be out after dark; she was also not happy about the police's assertions in 1979-1980 that sex workers were the killer's target even though, from May 1978 onwards, all the victims were not sex workers by trade. Bindel took part in feminist protests against the killings including flyering mock-up police notices for men to stay off the streets for the safety of women. She continued campaigning against sexual violence, and worked as an unpaid feminist activist working for women's rights. In the 1990s she attended London Metropolitan University as an undergraduate.

In 1990, Bindel was a co-founder of Justice for Women (JFW), a group which opposes violence against women from a feminist viewpoint. "Justice For Women is a feminist organisation that campaigns and supports women who have fought back against or killed violent male partners". They are concerned with issues of mariticide arising from domestic abuse. JFW offer welfare advice, campaign on domestic violence, abused women who kill violent partners, immigration rights, and the dangers women face with the rise of religious fundamentalism. JFW "campaign for changes in the defences to murder so that they encompass and reflect women's experiences of domestic violence."

Bindel's writing on cyberstalking, where a victim is humiliated or threatened with unwelcome email messages at work or to professional associates, has been cited by academics. In 2006 Bindel wrote of a personal pact regarding rape and how rape victims are re-victimized by being "identified, vilified and even crimialised." She shared that if she were raped at the time she would likely not report it to the police because of these concerns.

Bindel's activism is reflected in her contribution to research and writing on feminist issues, violence against women, and prostitution; she was a researcher at both Leeds Metropolitan and London Metropolitan Universities, being the assistant director of the research unit on violence and abuse at Leeds Metropolitan. Her writing features in books and reports she has authored, edited, contributed to, or been quoted in, and these are detailed in the bibliography.