Paula Wright, 45

I stopped identifying as a feminist a few years ago when I was studying rape and discovered that prominent feminist organisations were misrepresenting rape prosecution statistics for political reasons. The Stern Report on Rape later officially confirmed this and also noted that the practice could stop victims coming forward – in other words, feminism was placing ideology before truth and before people. I found that unconscionable. It is still happening. Rape statistics are constantly being misrepresented to frighten women and make them believe they live in a “rape culture”. In fact, successful rape prosecutions are on a par with other crimes at over 50 per cent. Even attrition rates are commensurable to other crimes and victims should not feel there is little chance of receiving justice if they come forward.

Our justice system is not failing victims of rape. Rather feminism is failing us and our justice system. I identify as an egalitarian.

Ellen Grace Jones, 33

I am resolutely, unequivocally not a feminist. Saying that, would I have been waving placards alongside the suffragettes? Hell yes. Am I supportive of women’s rights? Of course. But feminism today has been co-opted by a hyper-offended, self-serving, navel-gazing Twitterati mob who mostly care about furthering their own (actually rather privileged) agenda than the plight of their fellow sisterhood who are, like, genuinely oppressed. You know, women living under Sharia Law or the 80 per cent of North Korean female refugees that have become “commodities for purchase.”

Case in point: the International Women’s Day schedule is almost all career-enhancing, work-centric conferences and events for the benefit and advancement of Western women. Suspiciously absent are charitable causes which would really empower oppressed and abused women in the rest of the world that do not have any voice at all.

Irrespective, I have no beef with International Women’s Day existing, but as an egalitarian who champions equal rights of both sexes, maybe International Men's Day deserves the same blanket, wall-to-wall coverage too?

All you need to know about International Women's Day 2016

Elizabeth Hobson, 27

It’s been noted that the best thing that can be said about feminism is that it’s redundant in a culture where we have equal rights. I think that this statement obfuscates the damage it does.

It’s a recipe for ruining lives, as we see in divorce statistics. Proceedings are predominantly initiated by women, who leave to be happy, but end up unhappy and often having done irreparable damage to their children. The family court system is hostile to fathers' rights and is an example of the political, not just personal, devastation that feminism has wreaked on equality and why it must be stopped.

Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Show all 22 1 /22 Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Katharine Hepburn “I have not lived as a woman. I have lived as a man. I've just done what I damn well wanted to, and I've made enough money to support myself, and ain't afraid of being alone” Getty Images Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Betty Friedan “No woman gets an orgasm from shining the kitchen floor” Getty Images Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Maya Angelou “I want to be representative of my race - the human race. I have a chance to show how kind we can be, how intelligent and generous we can be…” Getty Images Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Emmeline Pankhurst “I want to say to you who think women cannot succeed, we have brought the government of England to this position, that it has to face this alternative: either women are to be killed or women are to have the vote” Creative Commons Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Patricia Arquette "To every woman who gave birth, to every taxpayer and citizen of this nation, we have fought for everybody else’s equal rights, it’s our time to have wage equality once and for all, and equal rights for women in the United States of America." AFP PHOTO / Robyn BECKROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Nawal El Saadawi “They said, “You are a savage and dangerous woman. I am speaking the truth. And the truth is savage and dangerous” Getty Images Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Margaret Fuller "It is a vulgar error that love, a love, to woman is her whole existence; she is born for Truth and Love in their universal energy" Creative Commons Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Germaine Greer “All societies on the verge of death are masculine. A society can survive with only one man; no society will survive a shortage of women” Getty Images Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Naomi Wolf “A cultural fixation on female thinness is not an obsession about female beauty but an obsession about female obedience” Getty Images Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Rebecca West "I myself have never able to find out precisely what a feminist is. I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat" Creative Commons Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Margaret Atwood “Does feminist mean large unpleasant person who'll shout at you or someone who believes women are human beings. To me it's the latter, so I sign up” Getty Images Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Susan B. Anthony "I declare to you that woman must not depend upon the protection of man, but must be taught to protect herself, and there I take my stand" Creative Commons Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Sylvia Plath "Apparently, the most difficult feat for a Cambridge male is to accept a woman not merely as feeling, not merely as thinking, but as managing a complex, vital interweaving of both" Creative Commons Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Hillary Clinton "I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas, but what I decided to do was to fulfill my profession, which I entered before my husband was in public life" Getty Images Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Lena Dunham "The idea of being a feminist—so many women have come to this idea of it being anti-male and not able to connect with the opposite sex—but what feminism is about is equality and human rights. For me that is just an essential part of my identity. I hope [Girls] contributes to a continuance of feminist dialogue" Getty Images Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Bette Davis “When a man gives his opinion, he's a man. When a woman gives her opinion, she's a bitch” Creative Commons Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Jane Austen “I hate to hear you talk about all women as if they were fine ladies instead of rational creatures. None of us want to be in calm waters all our lives” Creative Commons Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Gloria Steinem “A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle” Getty Images Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Anais Nin “I hate men who are afraid of women's strength” Creative Commons Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Elizabeth Warren “I have a daughter and I have granddaughters and I will never vote to let a group of backward-looking ideologues cut women’s access to birth control. We have lived in that world, and we are not going back, not ever” Getty Images Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Malala Yousafzai “In Pakistan, when we were stopped from going to school, at that time I realized that education … Is the power for women, and that’s why the terrorists are afraid of education” Getty Images Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Virginia Woolf "As a woman I have no country. As a woman my country is the whole world" Getty Images

Jane Sandeman, 53

The modern feminist movement carries some problematic outlooks with it that can seem divisive, rather than forging a way forward for true equality.

I have always been more attracted by the term humanism - it seems much richer to try and understand what makes us fully human - and then from there understand the barriers that people face to realise this. At times that is understanding women have to face particular barriers and calling for those who are humanists - both women and men to address that.

Cia Ferguson, 17