Feminism, Law and Gender (FLAG)

This cluster provides an intellectual and collaborative space for academics, visiting researchers and PhD students interested in gender-focused and feminist analysis of the law.

FLAG’s research and research activities currently centre around the themes:

Reproductive Health
Gender and Technology
Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG)
Gender and Criminal Law
Gender and the Justice Professions
Feminist Legal History
Sexuality, Consent and Bodily Autonomy
Feminist Legal Theory

FLAG has had considerable success in engaging in knowledge exchange activities, including in devolved nations, the UK, and internationally. The work of FLAG members has been cited by the Scottish Government, the Welsh Government, politicians, the House of Lords, the Women & Equalities Committee, and the Law Commission, and has been used to influence the knowledge and working practices of national and international civil society organisations.

Members of the cluster are pursuing a range of projects, collaborative research, and public engagement activities in the areas of their expertise.

If you are interested in joining the FLAG cluster, please contact us.

On Tuesday, 21st April 2026, in partnership with the Vagina Museum, the FLAG Cluster is co-hosting a one-day conference: Celebrating our Fanniversary: Feminism, Gender, and Justice in an increasingly Reactionary World.

Content warning

Due to the nature of some of the issues within this research area, these pages may contain content that may be triggering or distressing. Please proceed with caution if any of the topics outlined above could be upsetting for you.

Cluster members

Sarah Bryan O'Sullivan

Sarah is a Senior Lecturer in Law at The Open University Law School. Dr Bryan O’Sullivan’s research interests lie in the area of criminal law, criminal justice, criminology and gender and crime, and she has recently co-authored a book entitled Gender, Crime and Criminal Justice in Ireland. The text brings together criminal law, criminal justice, criminological research and scholarship to explore how gender affects crime, victimisation, trial, and punishment.

Leyla Buran

Leyla is the Research Fellow in Policy and Practice at the Centre for Protecting Women Online and Co-Lead of its Law and Policy Stream. Her interests are in the primary prevention of men’s violence against women and girls, policy and practice development, and the role of international mechanisms in addressing VAWG and gender inequality. She previously held roles at Birmingham and Solihull Women’s Aid as the principal Policy Advisor and at White Ribbon UK, where she led policy, campaigns, communications and set up strategic partnerships. During this role she provided oral evidence to the Home Affairs Committee, and developed national initiatives with key stakeholders including an allyship programme with the Premier League.

Róise Connolly

Róise is a lecturer in law at the Open University. Her research explores gendered experiences of diagnosis, particularly focusing on whether the gender pain gap and diagnosis deprivation engage the prohibition of inhuman and degrading treatment under Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Caroline Derry

Caroline is Professor of Feminism, Law and History, and a former barrister and solicitor. She has published widely on the legal history of lesbianism, feminist legal biography, and the law on sexual consent, including monographs on Lesbianism and the Criminal Law (Palgrave, 2020) and Legal Temporalities of Sexual Consent (Edinburgh University Press, 2025). Current projects include Agatha Christie, sexuality and law; lesbian households in the 1921 census; and a multidisciplinary collaboration on legal offences in historical context. She is also co-editor of the forthcoming Elgar Research Handbook on Gender, History and Law and co-author of the Oxford University Press textbook Complete Criminal Law. Caroline also enjoys sharing her research with general audiences, from the International Agatha Christie Festival to local history groups.

Hayley Gibson

Hayley is a lecturer in law at the Open University. She has interests in legal theory and private law, and serves on the editorial boards of Critical Legal Thinking and Feminists@Law. She is a committee member of the Legal Humanities Association.

Sophie Doherty

Sophie is a lecturer in law at the Open University. Her research is primarily focused on the themes of, and relationship between, sexual violence, justice, law and art. To explore these themes, Sophie uses a multidisciplinary and cross-jurisdictional lens, informed by feminist scholarship and practice.

Olga Jurasz

Olga is Professor of Law and Director of the Centre for Protecting Women Online. Her research expertise is in international law, human rights, legal responses to violence against women (including online violence) and feminist approaches to governance of online spaces. Olga is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Hannah Martin

Hannah's current research re-evaluates Lockean legal personhood through feminist-informed perspectives. Hannah’s research aims to investigate the extent to which the concept of legal personhood is certain and consistent across abortion legislation and wider reproductive jurisprudence in England and Wales.

Shona Morrison

Shona conducts research on Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG). She has recently worked on projects to understand victim (dis)engagement from police investigations, and why Evidence-Led Prosecutions in domestic abuse rarely succeed. Shona adopts mixed methods approaches and realist evaluation methods.

Katrina Peak

Katrina's research interests cover gender equality and women’s empowerment through trade law and policy, particularly within Global Value Chains such as the Ready-Made Garment and Cocoa Global Value Chains.

Jill St George

Jill's research interests are focused on sex, gender and sexuality in the Commonwealth Caribbean (predominantly Barbados), exploring their relationships with slavery, colonisation, human rights and law.

Louise Taylor

Louise is a Senior Lecturer in Law, and she joined the Open University Law School in 2019. Her main areas of research interest relate to criminal law and victims’ rights. She is currently researching the criminal law’s response to coercively controlled defendants who commit crime as a result of the domestic abuse they have suffered.

Recent publications

Black, Lisa and Bryan O’Sullivan, Sarah, Gender, Crime and Criminal Justice in Ireland (Clarus Press 2025)

Derry, Caroline, ‘Feminist legal history at the heart of the law curriculum’ in Derry and Howells (eds), Legal History in the Curriculum: Comparative Perspectives, Critical Approaches and Future Directions (Routledge 2025)

Derry, Caroline, ‘The (non-)use of history and its significance in “For Women Scotland”’ (2025) 14(2) Feminists at Law

Derry, Caroline, ‘The Wolfenden Report, Homosexuality, and Women’ in Fiona Cownie and Rosemary Auchmuty (eds), Law and Justice in the 1950s: Case Studies from a Neglected Decade (University of London Press forthcoming 2025)

Derry, Caroline, Legal Temporalities of Sexual Consent (Edinburgh University Press 2025)

Gopalan, Priya and Jurasz, Olga, ‘War Crimes within an Armed Group in the Ntaganda Jurisdiction Order’ in Kcasey McLoughlin, Rosemary Grey, Louise Chappell and Suzanne Varrall (eds), Feminist Judgments: Reimagining the International Criminal Court (Cambridge University Press 2025)

Jurasz, Olga, ‘A Europe Fit for the Digital Age: Combating Online Violence Against Women’ in Abels, Kantola, Lombardo, and Müller (eds), The European Commission under President Ursula von der Leyen. Gender, Leadership, Policies, and Crises (OUP 2025)

Jurasz, Olga and Barker, Kim, ‘Online violence against women in politics and democratic harms’ in Kim Barker and Olga Jurasz (eds), Routledge Handbook of Social Media, Law and Society (Routledge 2025)

Jurasz, Olga, ‘Violence, Law and Women’s Bodies’ in Vuille, Joëlle; Kapferer, Nils; Hotz, Sandra; Hefti, Angela and Boillet, Véronique (eds), In-corpore. What the law does to our bodies (Dike Verlag 2025)

Barker, Kim and Jurasz, Olga, ‘Digital and online violence: international perspectives’ (2024)

Derry, Caroline, ‘Criminal Law Amendment Act 1922’ in Auchmuty, Rackley and Takayanagi (eds), Women’s Interwar Legal Landmarks (Hart 2024)

Taylor-Dunn, Hayley, Bates, Laura, Reed, Debbie, Hopkins, Amy and Morrison, Shona, ‘Researching gender-based violence remotely during a pandemic: challenges, opportunities and methodological implications’ (2024) 8(3) Journal of Gender-Based Violence 285

Derry, Caroline, ‘Beyond firsts: feminist biography and early women barristers’ in Barnes, Honkala and Wheeler (eds), Women, Their Lives and the Law: Essays in Honour of Rosemary Auchmuty (Hart 2023)

Jurasz, Olga and Barker, Kim, ‘Online Text-Based (Sexual) Abuse’ in Ali, Parveen and Rogers, Michaela (eds) Gender-Based Violence: A Comprehensive Guide (Springer 2023)

Jurasz, Olga and Barker, Kim, ‘The “Politics” of Responsible Social Media Use in Universities: Cautionary Tales for Student Experience?’ in Siliquini-Cinelli, Luca and Giddens, Thomas eds. Biopolitics and Structure in Legal Education (Routledge 2023)

Jurasz, Olga and Barker, Kim, ‘Women, Violence and Protest in Times of COVID-19’ in Carl F Stychin (ed), Law, Humanities and the Covid Crisis (University of London Press 2023)

Taylor, Louise, ‘Special measures for domestically abused defendants’ (Adversarialism, Participation, and Voice Conference, University of Limerick 2023)

Derry, Caroline, Jurasz, Olga and Taylor, Louise, ‘Response to the Scottish Government’s improving victims’ experiences of the justice system consultation’ (2022)

Derry, Caroline, Jurasz, Olga and Taylor, Louise, ‘Response to the Scottish Government’s not proven verdict and related reforms consultation’ (2022)

Barker, Kim and Jurasz, Olga, ‘Online misogyny as a hate crime: #TimesUp’ in Irene Zempi and Jo Smith (eds), Misogyny as Hate Crime (Routledge 2021)

Barker, Kim and Jurasz, Olga, ‘Sexual Violence in the Digital Age: A Criminal Law Conundrum?’ (2021) 22(5) German Law Journal 784

Jurasz, Olga, ‘Gender-Based Abuse Online: An Assessment of Law, Policy and Reform in England and Wales’ (2021)

Jurasz, Olga, ‘Text-Based (Sexual) Abuse and Online Violence Against Women: Toward Law Reform’ (2021)

Barker, Kim and Jurasz, Olga, ‘Online violence against women as an obstacle to gender equality: a critical view from Europe’ (2020) European Equality Law Review 47

Derry, Caroline, ‘Consenting to Sexual Activity’ in Claydon, Derry and Ajevski (eds), Law in Motion: 50 Years of Legal Change (Open University Law School 2020)

Derry, Caroline, ‘Ethel Bright Ashford: more and less than a role model’ (2020) 29(4) Women’s History Review 615

Derry, Caroline, Lesbianism and the Criminal Law: Three Centuries of Regulation in England and Wales (Palgrave Macmillan 2020)

Jurasz, Olga and Szablewska, Natalia, ‘Towards transformative gender equality: the importance of addressing economic violence against women in Cambodia’ in M J Gámez Fuentes, S Núñez Puente and E Gómez Nicolau (eds), Re-writing Women as Victims: From Theory to Practice (Routledge 2020)

Taylor, Louise and Justice, Lucy, ‘Autobiographical Memory Misconceptions and the Police Investigative Response to Rape Complaints’ (2019) 10 Criminal Law Review 827