Video: Heather Rabbatts: philanthropy, feminism and freedom of the City Ms Rabbatts, a former BBC governor, has had impressive and varied career. Currently a director of the Football Assoication and the Royal Opera House, she was chairman of Millwall for two years and has extensive governance experience dating from her time as chief executive of Lambeth Council. She was also a member of the government-appointed committee that looked into the causes of the summer riots across Britain. But it is for her philanthropic work that she is receiving the Freedom of the City of London and she said that she has often found herself cast as a role model not by choice but by the positions she has found herself. I think it is hard to be a role model, it's not something I would seek or desire but it comes with the fact that I am often the only woman, and I sit on a number of boards, and the only mixed race person on them. You have that responsibly. I know for many women, and for black and ethnic people, they look to me about what I stand for. At times you think it is hard enough but it come with the territory. She believes the rise of the internet, despite all the negative impact it can have on the young girls feel about themselves, has given expression to feminism in the 21st century. We know there is a dark side to the internet, but what [the internet] enables is conversations. For young girls to be able to find voices so that they don't feel alone, that they can share experiences that they can learn. We see the rise of feminism again in the 21st century and I think that is about young women defining themselves for themselves.