The Gender at Work Podcast
The Gender at Work Podcast is a bi-monthly podcast series, featuring diverse voices from the Gender at Work’s international network of feminist scholars, activists, and community-led development practitioners. In our informal conversations, we discuss books, articles, films, and other media that help us to find new ways of understanding our work, our institutions, our society and ambitiously, ourselves! By coming together in this new space, we seek to re-examine the resilience of patriarchy and assess the willingness and resistance of organizations and communities to create cultures of equality. We aim to amplify voices crucial in this transformative process of cultivating promising alternatives for a feminist future.
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Episode 32: What’s Love Got to Do With It? With Kumi Naidoo and Amitabh Behar
06/13/2026
Episode 32: What’s Love Got to Do With It? With Kumi Naidoo and Amitabh Behar
This final episode of our series “What’s Love Got to Do With It” features Kumi Naidoo and Amitabh Behar. Kumi is a South African human rights and climate justice activist who is currently President of the Fossil fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty initiative and former head of international organizations including Civicus, Greenpeace and Amnesty International. Amitabh is the Executive Director of Oxfam International who has with decades of experience in human rights, economic inequalities, governance accountability, philanthropy, democracy, social justice and building citizen participation. Both are globally known civil society leaders. In this conversation, Kumi and Amitabh reflect on weaving love, solidarity and justice in activism amid rising authoritarianism, polarization, economic inequality and climate crisis. Kumi talks about the need to reframe our messaging to avoid “us versus them” and to build bridges to people beyond existing movements and to avoid pessimism. Amitabh stresses the need to combine love with structural change and justice and to confront patriarchal institutional cultures that undermine internal change. The episode ends with a cautious but hopeful call for bold, systemic rethinking of movement strategy. Please listen in and send us your thoughts!
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Episode 31: What's love got to do with it: Carly Hare, Ava Bynum and Masha Chernyak
10/28/2025
Episode 31: What's love got to do with it: Carly Hare, Ava Bynum and Masha Chernyak
It isn’t often that we interview social justice activists working in the United States but in the last few years the US context has dramatically worsened. Democratic freedoms have been curtailed, women’s rights have been eroded, immigrants are being expelled and incarcerated, and we are seeing armed responses in several major cities to civil society protests. So, in this episode we talk to three extraordinary US social justice leaders: Carly Hare, an equity activist and advocate for the collective power of community solutions who comes from the Pawnee/Yankton nations; Masha Chernyak, an immigrant from Russia, who worked for more than a decade at the Latino Community Foundation where she boldly centered love in all of its programs, helping build the largest Latino donor network in the nation and a Latino Nonprofit Accelerator that has changed the game for grassroots nonprofits; and Ava Bynum a resource mobilizer, organizer, and movement leader. Ava is the Director of Impact at Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ), where they work to resource social justice movements, lead workshops, coach donors, and raise critical funds to support collective liberation efforts. We asked them to explain how they center love and solidarity in their work to challenge current moves against democracy and human rights in the US. All of them acknowledge that solidarity work isn’t light and it isn’t easy. Carly navigates the different communities she belong to – tribal, family, inter-racial communities – and asks “how do you skill build, how do you hold enough space to love and believe that people can be mobilized? And then how do you hold enough self-love to not put yourself in harm's way”. Masha reflects on how she used to be laughed out of the room when she led strategic planning sessions where she put love squarely at the center but she prevailed. Recounting the words of Shiree Tang she says “when the house is burning, what else do you do? ... We need to make love just as sexy and powerful as fear.” Ava says clearly that “it’s really hard to organize people you don’t love or at least have some openness to.” Speaking as someone who has worked with poor white communities in Appalachia and other rural areas in the US, she has important lessons to share. Do these strategies change systems of oppression? Listen in and hear their views!
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Episode 30: What’s Love Got to Do with It? With Pregs Govender and Srilatha Batliwala
07/12/2025
Episode 30: What’s Love Got to Do with It? With Pregs Govender and Srilatha Batliwala
In our second episode on exploring love as a basis for organizing and solidarity, we interview Pregs Govender (South Africa) and Srilatha Batliwala (India) – both globally well-known feminist activists and authors. Pregs aligns love with the inherent dignity of human beings and speaks eloquently of how oppressive systems, from apartheid in South Africa to Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people, use power to eradicate our humanity. What can we do about it? Srilatha offers brilliant insights about how we need to reconstruct our narratives to build inclusive societies and intentional alliances across movements. Both agree that our greatest defeat is when we are made to feel hopeless and helpless. They encourage each one of us to nurture our own sense of love, keep enacting it, build collective power with love and replenish ourselves through the earth’s energy. As Pregs says, “Lie on the ground, look at the sky, get into water and see ourselves as part of nature. We are not separate. Find pathways from apathy to empathy, how to break and end silences about the oppressive forces, systems, narratives, how to recenter every single moment, every single day when you are being shattered.” Join us in this moving and inspiring conversation.
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Episode 29: What's love got to do with it: Nyaradzai Gumbonzvanda
05/23/2025
Episode 29: What's love got to do with it: Nyaradzai Gumbonzvanda
In the new season of the Gender at Work podcast – What’s Love Got to Do With It? – we ask the question - can love in the vision of Audre Lord, bell hooks, Martin Luther King, Desmond Tutu, Mahatma Gandhi and so many social justice leaders worldwide, help us in shifting systems of oppression. How does social justice action from the basis of love help us to transform ourselves while also eliminating the profound cruelty and manipulation we see all around us? And how are women and gender equality leaders incorporating these questions and values into their practice? We also explore ideas and practical solutions that are based on love, on connection, coexistence, and understanding. Our opening episode features Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda, the Deputy Executive Director of UN Women. Nyaradzayi, a Zimbabwean national and lawyer, has a long history of activism on issues of women’s rights and gender equality. She is the founder and former executive director of the Rosario Memorial Trust in Zimbabwe and prior to that served as the General Secretary of the World YWCA. Nyaradzayi was appointed the first African Union Goodwill Ambassador on Ending Child Marriage. What is love? For Nyaradzayi it means “saying no to discrimination”. She says that “we need a world that respects diversities” and that “if we have love, we have courage”. We are inspired by this brave and eloquent feminist warrior who draws on her vast experience to lead with justice from the halls of the UN to rural communities and organizations around the world and who explains how to organize with love.
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New Season Teaser - What's love got to do with it?
05/19/2025
New Season Teaser - What's love got to do with it?
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Episode 28: Are Feminist Foreign Policies Actually Feminist?
02/26/2024
Episode 28: Are Feminist Foreign Policies Actually Feminist?
In this episode of the G@W podcast, we delve into Feminist Foreign Policies and look at some of the opportunities, challenges and contradictions inherent in them. We also explore some of the collective aspirations of feminists for Feminist Foreign Policies. These would be important questions to ask at any time but now they are especially important as some of the very governments that have announced Feminist Foreign Policies support Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza or are themselves major arms manufacturers. Now is a good time to probe and understand how ‘feminist’ the growing slew of Feminist Foreign Policies actually are. We are going to hear five different and thought-provoking ideas about feminist foreign policies in this episode. This will include perspectives from Nadine Gassman, President of the National Institute of Women of Mexico, Margot Wallstrom, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Sweden, Hibaaq Osman, founder and leader of Karama, Anne Marie Goetz, Clinical Professor of Global Affairs at New York University, and Foteini Papagiotti, Senior Policy Advisor at ICRW.
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Episode 27: Gender Apartheid – Help or Hindrance?
11/06/2023
Episode 27: Gender Apartheid – Help or Hindrance?
Many feminists around the world believe that there is a war on against women and some are calling it “gender apartheid”. The global campaign to end gender apartheid focuses particularly on Iran and Afghanistan. In this episode we explore this term “gender apartheid” – where it came from and what some of the Femilemmas around it are. We look at its usefulness in addressing what is happening to women and girls in Iran and Afghanistan today. We speak to Dr. Sima Samar, the former Minister of Women’s Affairs in Afghanistan and former chair of the Afghanistan Human Rights commission. We also hear from Roxanna Shapour, an Iranian and senior analyst from the Afghanistan Analysts Network, who has extensive experience in Afghanistan and in communications and media with the BBC and the UN, and we listen to Afghani women’s voices through the research of DROPS, the Organization for Policy Research and Development Studies based in Afghanistan and its leader, Mariam Safi. Join us and tell us what you think! Note to our listeners: We recorded this episode prior to the horrific violence in Palestine and Israel. We join many others who are calling for an immediate cessation of the war on Gaza and accountability for crimes against humanity. Our next episode will focus on Feminist Foreign Policy and explore the complexities, contradictions and hypocrisies that emerge when governments and feminist networks proclaim their alignment with feminist principles without addressing fundamental power asymmetries and the devastating consequences of unfettered militarization.
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Episode 26: The Femilemmas of Allyship – Voices from Beirut
08/01/2023
Episode 26: The Femilemmas of Allyship – Voices from Beirut
In this episode, three graduate students from the American University of Beirut, Maria Hamarneh, Elvira Abi Zeid and Leil Younes, question male allyship for women’s rights and feminist values in a social media context heavily influenced by toxic misogynists targeting young men and boys. They reflect on the ways that, as in many parts of the world, women’s rights are under attack and work on gender equality is being undermined or rolled back, including by ultra-right wing, fundamentalist groups. Nisreen Alami, a Palestinian feminist activist who lives in Jordan and who is also a Gender at Work Associate, joined the conversation. Nisreen opens another dimension of the Femilemma by questioning the value of transnational feminist allyship when critical contextual and historical realities are left out. As she says, “misogyny has become very good at using transnational tools and feminism has not been very successful at being a truly transnational movement.” These are important Femilemmas with no easy answers. Come on in and listen and let’s hear your views!
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Episode 25: Femilemmas Pop-Up
05/01/2023
Episode 25: Femilemmas Pop-Up
Femilemmas about gender identities, about who is a feminist, about inconsistencies when government leaders claim feminist mantles and so on, have been percolating for years. We held a Femilemmas PopUp at the 67th session of the Commission on the Status of Women in New York in March to hear what Femilemmas were on the minds of participants there. In this episode we share a few - Anne Marie Goetz (New York University, New York City) explores the Femilemmas inherent in feminist foreign policies; Andrea Cornwall (Kings College, London) lays out the complex and evolving Femilemmas around ‘gender’; Deepa Mattoo (Barbra Schlifer Commemorative Clinic, Toronto) spoke about how they resolved a Femilemma by adopting a gender inclusive policy for all services, and Fidele Rutayisire (Rwanda Men’s Resource Organization) addressed the Femilemmas of men as feminists. Are these your Femilemmas? How would you respond? What femilemmas are you grappling with? Join the conversation! We want to hear from you!
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Next Season Teaser - Femilemmas
03/08/2023
Next Season Teaser - Femilemmas
In this teaser, Aruna and Joanne bring up the theme of their upcoming season: Feminist dilemmas, or, as they refer to it, Femilemmas.
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Episode 24: Leadership Transitions, Feminist Dilemmas, Soft Winds and the Roses
02/20/2023
Episode 24: Leadership Transitions, Feminist Dilemmas, Soft Winds and the Roses
G@W has a new Executive Director - madeleine kennedy-macfoy. Welcome madeleine! In this episode, we introduce madeleine and invite the past EDs of Gender at Work to think about what the opportunity and challenge mix has been over the decades at G@W and what learnings and dilemmas they have to share with Madeleine as she steps in. We build on a theme that we’ve explored over the past episodes of the podcast: feminist leadership transitions. Like many of those we interviewed, we tried as much as possible to interject feminist principles into the leadership transition and were somewhat successful while also learning in the process. The EDs speak of early choices about co-leadership, the virtual structure of G@W, and dilemmas and questions connected to the emergent nature of the work and how that shaped power dynamics, ownership, accountability and culture. Join us in our praxis of reflection-action-reflection and share with us your feminist dilemmas. This is inspired by a Gordon Lightfoot song and Joni’s “for the Roses”
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Episode 23: Emergent Strategies to Support Cultures of Repair and Care
12/21/2022
Episode 23: Emergent Strategies to Support Cultures of Repair and Care
How do feminist organizations get beyond ‘calling out’ to repair and care? What can we learn from feminist leaders who are experimenting with strategies to build trust, reverse practices that undermine feminist collective action, and prioritize care, connection and thriving? In this episode, we talk to Michal Friedman, a longtime associate of G@W, a feminist activist and a personal and social change facilitator based in South Africa and Janet Wong, a close partner of G@W and former UN Women Country Representative in Timor Leste and Cambodia. Several years ago, Michal and Janet collaborated on a process of supporting Cambodian feminist activists. Janet lays out what it takes to create safe spaces for activists who live in contexts where trust is understandably elusive and Michal shares the methods used to help activists become more at ease in their bodies, recognize each other as persons, acknowledge trauma and its impact on self and the collective, and use storytelling that enabled communicating from the heart. Much of this work is emergent; it can’t be scripted. We also reflect on what this means for how we work to change the cultures of our organizations. How do we, as individuals, build our capacity to confront with respect and nurture cultures of care? How do we let go of rage? How do we remain open and curious in order to fuel stronger collaborations and solidarity? How can we nurture allyship and trust to challenge patriarchal ways of working and find new pathways to fortify organizing and organizations driven by our feminist principles? Join us and take a listen!
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Episode 22: Feminist Reckonings or Feminist Wrecking Balls?
08/09/2022
Episode 22: Feminist Reckonings or Feminist Wrecking Balls?
What is driving the growing numbers of implosions that many social justice groups around the world – including feminist organizations and networks -- are experiencing? Coming on the heels of the #Me Too movement, the flashmobs inspired by the “El Violador Eres Tu!” movement, and the Black Lives Matter protests following the murder of George Floyd, we started to witness staff in feminist organizations publicly calling out abuse of power, racism, gender discrimination and other forms of exclusionary practices in the very organizations that we joined to reverse these. As de-stabilizing and paralyzing as these implosions might be, this is a reckoning that is long past due. How can we leverage this momentum to build more sustainable and impactful organizations and movements that fully reflect feminist principles? Join us to listen to the inter-generational insights and experiences of Lina Abou Habib, Lebanese feminist and Board member of the newly created in the Middle East; Dildar Kaya, from Kurdistan, who specializes in access to mental health services and the recovery of survivors of conflict and is a member of the Board of the ; and Shawna Wakefield, a Gender at Work Associate who has worked for 25 years on feminist leadership and transformative approaches to ending violence against women, strengthening movement building for women’s rights and building cultures of care and who is a co-founder of .
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Episode 21: Are Feminist Leadership Transitions Feminist?
03/31/2022
Episode 21: Are Feminist Leadership Transitions Feminist?
We just completed the seminal month for women’s rights globally – worldwide celebration of International Women’s Day on March 8th, innumerable events worldwide for Women’s History month in the United States, and the 66th UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) recently concluded. Women’s rights and feminist organizations and movements are the drivers of change for gender equality yet, the question of how feminist organizations grow and thrive, the tensions they experience between principles and how those get practiced, and around how power is exercised are really topics at events like the CSW. In our last episode, we interviewed three founder leaders of feminist organizations and for this episode, we talked with a group of fierce feminist leaders who invested their hearts and souls in four very different organizational contexts over the past 30 years. Ruby Johnson and Devi Leiper were co-EDs of FRIDA, the young feminist fund and stepped down when they turned 35, about 2 years ago. Ruth Ojiambo Ochieng was ED of ISIS WICCE, based in Uganda, for more than 20 years and stepped down in her 60s, about 5 years ago. Sara Gould was with the Ms. Foundation for Women in the U.S. for 25 years, including six years as its President and stepped down ten years ago at 60. And Katherine Acey led the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice, based in New York, for more than 20 years and stepped down 11 years ago. The Ms. Foundation works exclusively in the U.S. while all the other organizations work transnationally. Three of the organizations are women’s funds. Each of the leaders in this conversation had unique experiences and thoughts about their transitions. And each brings huge amounts of wisdom and experience to the question of how leadership transitions can center feminist principles more intentionally. Come and listen to their stories!
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Episode 20: Feminist Leadership Transitions
01/13/2022
Episode 20: Feminist Leadership Transitions
In our last episode we talked about the challenges of dismantling patriarchy and promised that our next episode would start to unpack different strategies to topple patriarchy. We have chosen to focus first on how leadership transitions happen and what happens to the leaders who choose to leave. There is a generational shift in leadership of feminist organizations around the world and we can see that these shifts happen differently in different contexts. They represent a way in which we both wrestle with and challenge patriarchy. Older leaders, many founders of organizations, are stepping down in new ways. In this episode, we talk to three leaders who voluntarily stepped away to make way for new leadership and new voices in the organizations that they founded and dedicated themselves to for nearly two decades. We’ll be hearing from Mallika Dutt who created Breakthrough in 2000 and stepped down in 2017; from Lisa VeneKlasen who founded Just Associates or JASS in 2002 and stepped down at the beginning of 2020; and from Aruna Rao, who co-founded Gender at Work in 2003 and was its Executive Director for 14 years, stepping down in 2017. Some of the questions we explore are: Why did they step down? How did it feel once they stepped away? What did they gain? What did they miss? How can we prepare better for leadership transitions in feminist organizations in a way that continues to build community around a shared purpose for our work? Do join us in this conversation and let us know what you think. Please email us at
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Episode 19: Caring in a Post Covid World
10/01/2021
Episode 19: Caring in a Post Covid World
In a passionate and wide-ranging conversation, Kumi Naidoo and Aruna Rao explore hope, fear, Black Lives Matter, feminist principles, intersectionality and structural change. They ask whether the institutions that were set up to protect us, like the police, and to enable social change, such as social services, the UN, and international development organizations, have failed us and whether we should keep trying to change them from the inside or tear them down and start again. This episode is a re-broadcast of Kumi’s new podcast - Power, People & Planet – produced by the Green Economy Coalition – which brings together activists, artists and community leaders who are dismantling our broken systems and building something new in its place. Kumi Naidoo, a veteran social and environmental justice activist from South Africa, has held senior positions in international civil society organizations. He was the former SG of Amnesty International, Greenpeace and Civicus and is a founding board member of Gender at Work. We invite you to listen in and join the conversation. Please email us at
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Episode 18: Dismantling Patriarchy – Close Encounters and Imperfect Strategies
08/11/2021
Episode 18: Dismantling Patriarchy – Close Encounters and Imperfect Strategies
Look around you and you’ll find many conversations about reimagining and transforming how we live and work – from how we enable the plant to thrive, to new ways of envisioning economics. And in all kinds of organizations, we are seeing real challenges to what was previously unchecked - abusive power dynamics, toxic work environments, sexual harassment, racism, and discrimination against all kinds of people who don’t fit what was considered ‘the norm’. In this episode – the first in a series of three - Srilatha Batliwala, David Kelleher, Lisa Veneklasen, Joanne Sandler and Aruna Rao reflect on the their close encounters with patriarchy in organizations and the dynamics they tried to ignite to challenge them which they outlined in . They touch on what they learned, discuss what dilemmas they faced in their imperfect offerings, and strategies and what questions they have in this moment of change and upheaval. Come listen to their stories as they draw on their collective experiences to talk about what was aligned with their principles and what contradicted them in their leadership practice. Most of all, we hope this encourages you to tell us your stories. Please write to us at
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Episode 17: Intergenerational Conversations on Organizing for Gender Equality
06/25/2021
Episode 17: Intergenerational Conversations on Organizing for Gender Equality
On the eve of the Generation Equality Forum (GEF) in Paris, Aruna Rao and Joanne Sandler – veterans of the 1995 Beijing conference – have an intergenerational talk with three young activists: Priya Kvam and Amani Jui from Breakthrough US and Natalia Escruceria Price, an independent consultant formerly with JASS. Our exchange with these young activists highlights our differing vantage points on a number of ideas, from patriarchy to transnational organizing to how we understand current and future challenges to gender equality. Join us for a thoughtful conversation and email us to let us know what you think!
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Episode 16: Are Our Strategies Fit For Purpose?
04/28/2021
Episode 16: Are Our Strategies Fit For Purpose?
Gender mainstreaming and the two-track approach to achieve gender equality were two strategies for strengthening organizations' action on gender equality that grew out of the 1995 Beijing Conference on Women. Twenty-six years later, the world looks very different with multiple crises of inequality, violence against women and LGBTIQ people, climate extinction and less faith in democracy and the old social contract. Have our strategies delivered on their promise? Are they still fit for purpose? Should we continue trying to chip away at patriarchy or is it time to chop off patriarchy’s head? Join us in conversation with Nisreen Alami, Rex Fyles, Anne Marie Goetz, Sudarsana Kundu and Kalyani Menon Sen. And let us know what you think!
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Episode 15: Can the UN deliver a feminist future?
10/12/2020
Episode 15: Can the UN deliver a feminist future?
Can the UN Deliver a feminist future? This question is posed by Anne Marie Goetz (Professor, NYU) and Joanne Sandler (Senior Associate G@W and former Deputy ED, UN Women) in the June edition of Gender and Development. Join us for a lively discussion on this question in the latest episode of the Gender at Work podcast. Anne Marie and Joanne are joined by long-time feminist activists Geetanjali Misra, Executive Director of CREA and Lina Abou Habib from the American University in Beirut, and young feminists Majandra Rodriguez Acha, Co-Director of Frida and Shereen Essof, Executive Director of JASS.
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Episode 14: Letsema - 5 years of changing community norms through dialogue
07/07/2020
Episode 14: Letsema - 5 years of changing community norms through dialogue
How do you break up violent ways of behaving and the exercise of power over? How do change what is considered normal? How do you create a new culture that values others no matter how different they are? A community in Gauteng, South Africa, supported by Gender at Work and the Labor Research Service, launched an initiative called Letsema 5 years ago to end gender based violence in their community. In this episode, they tell us about the dialogues they had across very different people and groups ranging from gang leaders to traditional leaders to gay and lesbian members of their community. They recount the healing processes they learned about and used to build their confidence to say, “we have the solutions within our own means.” Join us and listen to their stories told with open hearts.
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Episode 13: Insubordinate Leadership
03/29/2020
Episode 13: Insubordinate Leadership
We are living in a time, which adrienne marie brown describes as apocalyptic - a time that demands that we draw our imagination to think beyond what is politically possible, which she says is “simply not enough”. What does feminist leadership look like in such times? In this episode, we talk to two globally recognized, inspiring feminist warriors from South Africa, Pregs Govender, a former ANC member of parliament and Deputy Human Rights Commissioner, and Phumi Mtetwa, an award winning anti-apartheid, gay rights and AIDS activist, on what it takes to be active within this co-existence of apocalypse and utopia. Drawing on her book, Love and Courage: A story of Insubordination, Pregs talks of what it means to build a revolution of love grounded in human dignity and rights. Phumi talks of how insubordination was central to her emergence as a young South African lesbian leader. Both discuss how they have fought structures and systems of discrimination and exclusion to build toward a feminist vision of a just and equitable world, to interweave relationships of resilience and ways they practice insubordinate leadership now.
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Episode 12: Patriarchy Impeached - Is this what justice looks like? The Catherine Claxton story
11/19/2019
Episode 12: Patriarchy Impeached - Is this what justice looks like? The Catherine Claxton story
This episode walks us through Catherine Claxton’s story, which has been assembled by G@W Senior Associate Joanne Sandler and Julie Thompson, both long time UN staffers. Catherine's lawyers -- Mary Dorman and Ellen Yaroshefsky -- recount the events that led Catherine, a junior UN staffer, to charge an Undersecretary General with sexual abuse. What unfolded in response mirrors the Me Too stories of today. Patriarchy closed ranks around the perpetrator and demanded allegiance to authority from those in the system; attempts were made to discredit the complainant – in this case, Catherine - and bury her in bureaucratic legalese as she sought to use the existing mechanisms and processes of adjudication to seek justice; and when all the evidence was in and a third party judgement came in favoring her, the UN buried the report. Finally the perpetrator was fired and was given a glorious send off. Sound familiar? Is this what justice looks like in cases of sexual harassment and abuse? How do we impeach patriarchy and hold it accountable? Listen in and tell us what you think.
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G@W-CREA Podcast Series, Episode 5: How can we reboot cross-movement alliance building for greater collective voice and impact?
07/22/2019
G@W-CREA Podcast Series, Episode 5: How can we reboot cross-movement alliance building for greater collective voice and impact?
At a time when conservative, fundamentalist and fascist forces appear to achieving political dominance, the need for progressive movements to build strong alliances and collective resistance appears paramount – yet, few such alliances are visible and sustaining cross-movement solidarity is very hard work. This episode explores why this is the case, what are the fault lines, and some success stories of cross-movement alliances and the lessons we can learn from them. Participants include: Aruna Rao (moderator); Roselyn Odoyo (Roxy), Queer Rights Activist, Kenya; Daysi Flores, Just Associates (JASS) Mesoamerica, Honduras; Alex Bradley, JASS, USA; Rupsa Mallik, CREA, India. Gender at Work and CREA co-developed a podcast series on feminists rethinking politics and resistance, reimagining change and transformation and rebooting struggles and movements. We asked participants at CREA’s Re-conference in Nepal - artists, performers, writers, activists, policy makers, film makers and many others from the disability rights, sex worker rights, environmental rights, sexual and reproductive rights and queer movements from around the world - to reflect on a series of provocative questions: How are you responding to criminalization? How are you standing up to threats to critical thinking, freedom of expression, right to organize and protest, and suppression of rights? How are artists, activists and movements on the margins addressing issues of exclusion and inclusion in more intersectional ways? In the face of progressive terminology, how can we rethink language and terminology so as to shape new strategies, narratives and advocacy? Why and how do we need to reimagine ideas around consent, pleasure and danger? How can we reboot cross- movement alliance building for greater collective voice and impact? All episodes were recorded at the CREA Re-conference in Nepal in April 2019.
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G@W-CREA Podcast Series, Episode 4: How can we reimagine ideas around consent, pleasure and danger?
07/15/2019
G@W-CREA Podcast Series, Episode 4: How can we reimagine ideas around consent, pleasure and danger?
This episode examines why we need to reimagine prevailing ideas around consent, pleasure and danger as embedded in our laws, social norms, and feminist movement politics. The discussion explores why pleasure needs to be moved from the margins of feminist agendas to be viewed as integral to dismantling patriarchy; why the connections between pleasure and danger must be rethought; and why consent must be disconnected from a protectionist approach that denies the agency and right to choice of individuals. Participants in this episode are: Aruna Rao (moderator); Dipika Srivastava, TARSHI, India; Solome Nakaweesi, Independent Consultant, Uganda; Subha Wijesiriwardena, Women & Media Collective, Sri Lanka; and Kawira Mwirichia, Artist & Curator, Kenya. Gender at Work and CREA co-developed a podcast series on feminists rethinking politics and resistance, reimagining change and transformation and rebooting struggles and movements. We asked participants at CREA’s Re-conference in Nepal - artists, performers, writers, activists, policy makers, film makers and many others from the disability rights, sex worker rights, environmental rights, sexual and reproductive rights and queer movements from around the world - to reflect on a series of provocative questions: How are you responding to criminalization? How are you standing up to threats to critical thinking, freedom of expression, right to organize and protest, and suppression of rights? How are artists, activists and movements on the margins addressing issues of exclusion and inclusion in more intersectional ways? In the face of progressive terminology, how can we rethink language and terminology so as to shape new strategies, narratives and advocacy? Why and how do we need to reimagine ideas around consent, pleasure and danger? How can we reboot cross- movement alliance building for greater collective voice and impact? All episodes were recorded at the CREA Re-conference in Nepal in April 2019.
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G@W-CREA Podcast Series, Episode 3: How can we rethink language and terminology to shape new strategies, narratives and our advocacy?
07/08/2019
G@W-CREA Podcast Series, Episode 3: How can we rethink language and terminology to shape new strategies, narratives and our advocacy?
Language is often the medium through which exclusion, stigma and invisibilisation of certain groups, experiences and identities is normalised and justified. This podcast discusses whether and why language and terminology matter, how new words and frames can be created in diverse cultural contexts to claim power, presence and voice, and analyses the hijacking of progressive feminist language by conservative political movements. Participants in this episode include: Aruna Rao (moderator); Jayanthi Kuru, Independent Consultant, Sri Lanka; Shalini Singh and Srilatha Batliwala of CREA, India; Rudo Chigudu Warrier, Artist-Activist, Zimbabwe; and Cynthia Rothschild, Independent Consultant, USA. Gender at Work and CREA co-developed a podcast series on feminists rethinking politics and resistance, reimagining change and transformation and rebooting struggles and movements. We asked participants at CREA’s Re-conference in Nepal - artists, performers, writers, activists, policy makers, film makers and many others from the disability rights, sex worker rights, environmental rights, sexual and reproductive rights and queer movements from around the world - to reflect on a series of provocative questions: How are you responding to criminalization? How are you standing up to threats to critical thinking, freedom of expression, right to organize and protest, and suppression of rights? How are artists, activists and movements on the margins addressing issues of exclusion and inclusion in more intersectional ways? In the face of progressive terminology, how can we rethink language and terminology so as to shape new strategies, narratives and advocacy? Why and how do we need to reimagine ideas around consent, pleasure and danger? How can we reboot cross- movement alliance building for greater collective voice and impact? All episodes were recorded at the CREA Re-conference in Nepal in April 2019.
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G@W-CREA Podcast Series, Episode 2: How are artists, activists, and movements on the margins rethinking exclusion and inclusion in more intersectional ways?
07/04/2019
G@W-CREA Podcast Series, Episode 2: How are artists, activists, and movements on the margins rethinking exclusion and inclusion in more intersectional ways?
Social power and injustice are often expressed and experienced through inclusion and exclusion. This episode explores what constitutes inclusion or exclusion, who are the most excluded groups and identities, and how diverse constituencies are connecting to challenge their marginalisation. The role of creative people in raising awareness about exclusionary politics is also explored. Participants in this episode are Aruna Rao (moderator), Janet Price, Independent Activist, UK/New Zealand; Thea Khoury, AFEMENA, Lebanon; Gabrielle le Roux, Artist-Activist, South Africa; Nthabisend [Babalwa] Mokoena, Intersex Activist, South Africa; and Dada Ben Azouz, Artist, Tunisia. Gender at Work and CREA co-developed a podcast series on feminists rethinking politics and resistance, reimagining change and transformation and rebooting struggles and movements. We asked participants at CREA’s Re-conference in Nepal - artists, performers, writers, activists, policy makers, film makers and many others from the disability rights, sex worker rights, environmental rights, sexual and reproductive rights and queer movements from around the world - to reflect on a series of provocative questions: How are you responding to criminalization? How are you standing up to threats to critical thinking, freedom of expression, right to organize and protest, and suppression of rights? How are artists, activists and movements on the margins addressing issues of exclusion and inclusion in more intersectional ways? In the face of progressive terminology, how can we rethink language and terminology so as to shape new strategies, narratives and advocacy? Why and how do we need to reimagine ideas around consent, pleasure and danger? How can we reboot cross- movement alliance building for greater collective voice and impact? All episodes were recorded at the CREA Re-conference in Nepal in April 2019.
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G@W-CREA Podcast Series, Episode 1: How are artists, women’s rights activists and movements on the margins responding to criminalization?
06/27/2019
G@W-CREA Podcast Series, Episode 1: How are artists, women’s rights activists and movements on the margins responding to criminalization?
Various narratives, social norms and political agenda underlie the criminalisation of people based on their gender identities, sexual expression, reproductive choices or occupation (such as sex work). This podcast explores the impacts of this approach not only on these groups, but on societies as a whole, and the nature of resistance to criminalisation. Participants for this episode are: Aruna Rao, Lady Grew, Sara Hossain, Estefania Vela Barba and Mindy Roseman. Gender at Work and CREA co-developed a podcast series on feminists rethinking politics and resistance, reimagining change and transformation and rebooting struggles and movements. We asked participants at CREA’s Re-conference in Nepal - artists, performers, writers, activists, policy makers, film makers and many others from the disability rights, sex worker rights, environmental rights, sexual and reproductive rights and queer movements from around the world - to reflect on a series of provocative questions: How are you responding to criminalization? How are you standing up to threats to critical thinking, freedom of expression, right to organize and protest, and suppression of rights? How are artists, activists and movements on the margins addressing issues of exclusion and inclusion in more intersectional ways? In the face of progressive terminology, how can we rethink language and terminology so as to shape new strategies, narratives and advocacy? Why and how do we need to reimagine ideas around consent, pleasure and danger? How can we reboot cross- movement alliance building for greater collective voice and impact? All episodes were recorded at the CREA Re-conference in Nepal in April 2019.
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Episode 11: Post Beijing
02/13/2019
Episode 11: Post Beijing
It’s almost 25 years since the landmark women’s conference held in Beijing in 1995. What did women achieve at Beijing and what are some of the key new and unfinished feminist agendas? In this podcast Joanne Sandler, the former Deputy Director of Unifem and current senior associate G@W starts us off by tracing some of the intentions, magic and results from Beijing. Then we discuss the new and unfinished agendas in the area of LGBTQ rights, economic inequality and disarmament and human security with Menaka Guruswamy, from Columbia University who spearheaded the historic LGBT rights victory in the Indian Supreme court, Vasuki Nesiah from New York University who specializes in issues of public international law, human rights and economic justice; and Ray Acheson, who heads the disarmament program of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.
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Episode 10: Art as Activism
12/13/2018
Episode 10: Art as Activism
There is no greater time than now, when we are experiencing a tremendous pushback against women’s rights and women’s rights defenders, to search for new and powerful ways to express ourselves and advocate for change. In this episode, we meet three powerhouse artists and activists: former Ford model and philanthropist, Monica Watkins, Australian singer-songwriter Jess McAvoy, and no-bounds visual artist/activist Sarita Kvam. Their narratives speak strongly to the human condition, what drives individuals to speak truth to power, and what roles art can play in today's movements, women's empowerment in particular. Join with us in this special episode to learn from these mighty change makers tied together through art and love - and the freedom that ensues when you bring them together.
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