Intentional Intersectional Inclusion Conference

Feminism is for everybody (bell hooks, 2000) and this includes men and those who are gender non-conforming.   True feminism means equality for ALL humanity; too often issues are conflated with only women’s rights. We all need to come together as a community to promote gender equality; for women, men and gender non-conforming people. The COVID-19 global pandemic has exposed multiple systemic inequalities but it also presented us with an opportunity: the issues associated with inequality and social justice have become highlighted. We cannot choose to return to “normal,” we must seize this opportunity to come together and speak up for equality.

This is especially true for gender equality; women’s well-being was impacted by the pandemic. Some researchers argue that gender inequality has been set back 10 to 15 years because of the pandemic and are calling for a “She-covery”. While we see the merit in this argument, we recognize that a lot of men and gender non-conforming people have also been impacted.

This conference will highlight the reasons that men and people who are gender non-conforming also need to be included to promote true gender equality.  We need to move towards the fourth wave of feminism- a wave that is intentionally inclusive of everyone.