About

I am a campaigner and researcher focusing on reproductive rights, civil partnerships and genital cutting. 


I wear many hats! I am a Senior Policy Officer for Health and Wellbeing at the charity Maternity Action, I co-chair the Maternity Voices Partnership at Chelsea and Westminster NHS Foundation Trust, and I am on the Expert Panel of the Wrisk Project. I also still have one foot in the academic door through my Visiting Research Fellow affiliation at the Centre of the Body at Goldsmiths, University of London. 

By background, I have a PhD in Politics from the University of Oxford. Since completing my doctorate, I have researched and/or taught at LSE's Middle East Centre, the Department of History at Stanford University, and the Department of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Birmingham. I have taught undergraduate and graduate courses on the history and politics of the Arab-Israeli conflict, and of the Middle East. I have written and broadcast widely on a range of gender- and Israel-related topics, in particular on the politics of abortion in Israel, and the ethics of male circumcision. I am a former BBC and Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK) 'New Generation Thinker' and Haaretz 'Jewish Thinker' blogger.
 
I am also co-founder, together with my partner in life and crime, Charles Keidan, of the Campaign for Equal Civil Partnerships in the UK. In 2018, Charlie and I successfully won our legal challenge against the ban on opposite-sex civil partnerships at the Supreme Court. In 2019, we finally succeeded in changing the law. From 31st December 2019, all couples, same-sex and mixed-sex alike, can walk into a registry office to actually form a civil partnership. It's been five years in the making. A tough journey at times, but we got there in the end, thanks to stellar legal and campaign teams, and wonderful public support. 


I tweet @beccasteinfeld