Victoria Bateman

Agent: Hannah Weatherill

Dr Victoria Bateman is an economic historian and feminist, and the author of multiple books including Economica: A Global History of Women, Wealth and Power (Headline Press, forthcoming in August 2025), Naked Feminism: Breaking the Cult of Female Modesty (Polity, 2023) and The Sex Factor: How Women made the West Rich (Polity, 2019). She has twenty years’ experience teaching economics and economic history at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, where most recently she was Director of Studies in Economics at Gonville and Caius College, and she is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

Victoria has spoken extensively on radio and television, providing historical context for current events and her thoughts on the economy. She was resident economic historian for BBC Radio 4’s “Understand: the economy” and has appeared on BBC News, Newsnight, the Today Programme, The World at One, Woman’s Hour, Times Radio and Good Morning Britain. Victoria has also been profiled and photographed for The Times, the Daily Mail, the New Statesman and Liberation (France).

Victoria has written for Bloomberg, Times Higher Education, The Guardian and The Telegraph, offering longer-form perspectives on history and the economy, and has been interviewed by various international broadcasters and newspapers. In addition to her writing and speaking, Victoria also works behind the scenes as a historical consultant, including for period dramas on screen.

Victoria is also known for her feminist activism in defence of women’s bodily freedom and has used her body, as well as her mind, to deliver her views – perhaps most famously in response to the Brexit vote of 2016. Victoria has delivered naked performances on stage as well as giving speeches on the topic of feminist economics at government institutions such as DEFRA and the ONS clad in the marginally more modest outfit of a few banknotes (and some double-sided tape). Victoria has also posed for nude portraits by leading artists, including Anthony Connolly, President of the RP, that have been displayed at the Mall Galleries in London, with one now on permanent display at Girton College, Cambridge.

Victoria is passionate about communicating history and believes in using our knowledge of the past to inform the present and to build a better future. In her spare time, you can find Victoria enjoying tea and cake, walking in the Kent countryside and watching film and TV.