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, When Equal Opportunities officers were appointed to the Polytechnic of North London, she protected the subject as well as women's studies.