Abstract

International Women’s Day is March 8th – join us in celebrating by coming along to this panel discussion at Wolfson!

The theme for this year is #BeBoldForChange, with the aim of generating discussion about how best to effect change and forge a more gender inclusive world.

Our speakers will be considering and discussing questions such as: - What would true gender equality look like? - How does capitalism perpetuate gender inequality? - Is austerity a feminist issue, and how does austerity affect women from marginalised groups? - As activists, should we be working within the system to effect change, or should we be trying to take the whole system down?

The speakers:

SARAH BROWN is a transgender activist and Liberal Democrat politician. She is a former Cambridge City Councillor for Petersfield Ward, and for several years was the only openly transgender elected politician in the UK. Her activism has included advocacy for equal marriage, and improved provisions for transgender people under the NHS , and she has been listed on the Independent on Sunday’s ‘Pink List’ of the most influential LGBT people in the UK several times.

MWENZA BLELL is a lecturer in the Department of Sociology and organiser of the Sociology of Gender paper at Cambridge University. Her research centres on gender, reproduction and sexuality, and the impact of gendered social inequality on bodies.

ANTONIA SUDKAEMPER is a PhD student who works on gender equality in the workplace. She draws on psychological theories to investigate the common defensive response by men to gender equality, and identify ways to alleviate the perceived threat.