Dr Charlotte Proudman

Dr Charlotte Proudman is an Intellectual Forum Senior Research Associate.

Dr Charlotte Proudman is an award-winning barrister and academic specialising in violence against women and girls. Charlotte is a pioneer in furthering legal change in landmark family law cases concerning rape, domestic abuse, and coercive and controlling behaviour. She uses her knowledge and experience of the justice system to advocate for legal change to ensure protection and support for victims and survivors. 

As a Research Associate at the University of Cambridge, she researches and teaches gender inequality under the law. Charlotte was awarded her Doctorate in FGM law and policy from King’s College, Cambridge and she was a Visiting Researcher, Berkeley Law School and Harvard Law School. In 2022, Oxford University Press published her book, ‘FGM: When Culture and Law Clash’. She has represented survivors of FGM seeking asylum and FGM Protection Orders.

For over a decade, Charlotte has advocated for women’s rights under the law. She is founder and director of Right to Equality, a not-for-profit which aims to change the law and advance women and girls' rights. Charlotte was instrumental in a range of successful campaigns to change the law for women and children: the introduction of FGM Protection Orders; the criminalisation of forced marriage, virginity testing, and hymenoplasty; and the increase of child marriage to the age of 18 in England and Wales. Charlotte is a legal advisor to Our Streets Now and Plan UK, a campaign to criminalise public sexual harassment and she is an ambassador for DAME, a company providing sustainable period products. 

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