About us

Space Invaders steering committee pose with power arms in front of the Women Power Protest holographic sign

Who are Space Invaders?

There’s 8 of us in the Space Invaders steering committee: Babs Guthrie, Sharon Heal, Margaret Middleton, Lucy Perman, Polly Richards, Ria Shah, Mel Strauss and Sara Wajid.

Together we organise events and schemes to help women in museums claim space – for themselves and, just as importantly, for each other.

We crowd sourced our Manifesto for change with hundreds of women in the sector. Now we’re working with our sister groups across the UK: Space Invaders North and Space Invaders Scotland to deliver change in each of its 3 areas.

Our super powers include, rousing speaking, sharp accessorising, rigorous research, effortless organising and strong power posing at heritage sites across the UK.

Our history

Space Invaders was the brainchild of Sara, Andrea Cunningham, Sharon and Mel after attending a Network for Change Confidence-Choice-Connections residential.

Our name comes from Nirmal Puwar’s book: Space Invaders: Race, Gender and Bodies Out of Place.

What have we done so far?

Since March 2016, we’ve drawn hundreds of women together to talk about the change we want to see at events across London, online and in Birmingham.

We’ve been thinking about what feminist leadership looks like. Identifying our blockers. And framing meaningful actions to overcome them.

We launched our manifesto in July 2020 on a live video stream with a hundred of our closest feminist friends and eminent researchers.

Since then we’ve

  • started a podcast of conversations about feminist leadership
  • set up Space Exchange: an intergenerational co-mentoring system, working with Museum Detox and Museum as Muck
  • undertaken research into UK museums’ board make-up

What is Network for Change?

Network for Change is a group for women leaders in museums, galleries and the heritage sector. It was developed as part of a national Women Leaders in Museum Network (WLMN) leadership programme, called ‘Confidence-Choice-Connections’, which ran throughout 2015 and was designed to reach and influence aspiring women leaders in the museum and heritage sector.

Read about Confidence-Choice-Connections on the Museums Association website

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Our feminist manifesto

Space Invaders is a campaign to claim equal space for women in museums and heritage. Read our manifesto to find out how.