Catherine Mayer

Catherine Mayer (born 24 January 1961) is an American-born British author and journalist, and the co-founder and President of the Women's Equality Party (WE) in the UK. Early life Mayer was born in the US and later became naturalised as British. She moved to Britain as a child when her father, theatre historian David Mayer, came to research a book and later secured tenure at Manchester University, teaching Ben Elton and Rik Mayall. Her mother, Anne Mayer Bird, is prominent within theatre PR. Mayer attended Manchester High School for Girls, and studied English Literature and European Studies at the University of Sussex (1978–82). One of her sisters is The Young Ones co-writer (with Mayall) Lise Mayer, while another is the theatre agent Cassie Mayer. Career Mayer started her career at The Economist and has worked as a foreign correspondent at the German news weekly Focus. Mayer was president of the Foreign Press Association in London from June 2003 until June 2005. She worked at Time from 2004 to April 2015, serving as Time'''s Editor at Large, Europe Editor, London Bureau Chief and Senior Editor. Mayer began legal action against Time in July 2017 on the grounds of age and gender discrimination."Former editor Catherine Mayer sues Time magazine for sex and age discrimination", CBC Radio, 4 September 2017. Her attorney was Dr. Ann Olivarius, a founding member of the Women's Equality Party, which was co-founded by Mayer (see below); Mayer and Olivarius were featured in a 2018 episode of Thomson Reuters Legal UK & Ireland’s podcast series, "The Hearing." Mayer's lawsuit prompted other journalists to seek legal advice about sexual discrimination and ended with an "amicable resolution" in 2018.