We are proud to introduce the Secular Women Work conference, a conference by and for activists. Do you want to build strong non-religious communities? Do you want to change our laws and our culture to be more accepting and accommodating of non-believers? Join us in Minneapolis in August 2015.
We live in a society in which unpaid work disproportionately falls to women. Unfortunately, this means that volunteer work, including activist work, is too often undervalued. We’re here to change that.
The Secular Women Work conference is a celebration of the work of female activists who create and run projects and communities in the secular movement. And there is no better way to honor their work than by using their expertise to help us all become better activists.
At Secular Women Work, you will find workshops: both hands-on exercises to develop your skills and facilitated group discussions where you can share challenges and solutions with other activists. You will find panels on specialist topics, with panelists who can help you broaden the horizons of your activism. And when you’re ready for a rest, you’ll find speakers who will entertain and inspire you with stories and lessons from their own work. In between it all, you’ll find a conference full of other activists who want to make a difference in the world.
All workshop leaders, all panelists, and all speakers will be experienced female or genderqueer activists with demonstrated accomplishments and skills to share. We are excited to announce that Lauren Lane, co-founder of Skepticon; Mandisa Thomas, president and founder of Black Nonbelievers, Inc., and Desiree Schell, labor activist and host of Science for the People will be appearing at Secular Women Work. We are working now to add more speakers, so keep your eye on this space for announcements.
The conference will be held in the historic Humphrey Conference Center on the University of Minnesota’s West Bank. The center is ADA compliant and situated on light rail.
So, come join us this August 21st through the 23rd for the Secular Women Work conference, and help support the women who work to make these communities happen! Make your pledge now to secure your ticket to the conference, or pledge to build a better movement by helping us make more, and more effective, activists.
See you there!
I really like this effort to bring together women in the movement. Especially since it will be in my backyard, so to speak.
I do hope that the focus isn’t completely on those who are in unpaid volunteer positions, but strives to address overall the concept that women in this movement (whether paid or not) find themselves undervalued and unrecognized for their contributions. Of course, that is a phenomenon that exists within society overall. However, the secular/humanist/atheistic movement prides itself on being open, intelligent and liberal minded individuals -yet it continues to be male dominated leaving women to “be the secretaries” in the board room. We managed to break the glass ceiling to run the meetings and the organizations, but we are still undermined by the male majority within the movement. Cheers to you all for putting forth this event!
Sincerely,
Kristin Wintermute
Executive Director, The Humanist Institute
Board of Directors, American Humanist Association
Board of Directors, Humanist Society
Board of Directors, UU Humanists