How can we hold ourselves accountable to feminist values and feminist communities as business people
and as ventures?

==> This workshop meets TWICE. The first half of the workshop will be Mon, Feb 1 and the second half on Mon, Feb 8, at 2:00 pm ET for Toronto & New York // London 7 pm GMT // Vancouver 10 am PT <== Plan to attend both halves.

By virtue of calling ours "feminist" businesses, we are making a public and personal commitment to holding ourselves accountable to feminist values and feminist communities. 

However, since there is no "Feminist Authority" to tell us when we're meeting our commitments or straying from them, we need to develop our own systems of accountability.

In this workshop, we'll explore several tactics being used in feminist businesses to hold ourselves accountable as individuals, as groups working together, as entities within marketplaces, and as actors/agents in a larger feminist movement.

Tactics we'll discuss include (and won't be limited to) accountability statements, quarterly scorecards, clearness meetings, accountability partners, and peer review teams.

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We'll also consider and help each other understand:

- what kinds of commitments make sense for ourselves and our businesses,

- how we can establish relationships within which we can hold brave and effective accountability conversations, and

- how we can participate in our feminist ecosystem to nudge each other forward with care and love.

Participants will leave with a fuller sense of what commitments they want to take on personally and as a business unit, how they want to be held accountable, and how they can contribute to and support other feminist businesses' goals.

This workshop is best for:

• People who are comfortable with saying that they advocate for a radically inclusive feminism (think "not White" or "not Lean-In") and are open to exploring what they need to learn and do next.

• Folks who are in the earliest stages of starting a business, a non-profit or community, a side hustle, or any beloved project and who want to pursue their venture in a more feminist way.

• Folks who have already established a feminist business or non-profit enterprise, who want to clarify their path forwards.

This workshop will also be useful for people who mentor and/or lead business accelerators and womxn's entrepreneurship programs, who want to understand how to support people and businesses with explicitly feminist business agendas.

People who are uncomfortable with feminisms that embrace all anti-oppression efforts and feminisms that envision a future where everyone and the planet flourishes may find that this workshop is not for them.

What to Expect

Prework:

Participants will receive an introductory exercise to complete the week before the workshop, as well as some pre-reading.

Drawing on feminist teaching practices, participants will be asked to reflect on different models of participating in the community and make a commitment to participating a level that works best for them.

During the workshop:

Participants will work with each other in small breakout groups as well as in a large, full group conversation.

Folks in this workshop will be asked to participate under the Feminist Collaboration Agreement, in which all parties agree to keep personal and business details private and not share them except within the workshop community.

Follow-up work:

Participants will receive a resource list for further learning and a self-reflection exercise to help you personalize your learning.

As part of the commitment you make by participating, you'll be expected to complete a feedback exercise to help improve the workshop and help us understand what support you might need as a (more) feminist entrepreneur.

Participants will be invited to join a short-term online community platform (paid for as part of their ticket) which they can use to discuss insights, share canvases, and ask follow-up questions for CV and other workshop participants to help answer.

Please email cv@feministsatwork.com if you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions.

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Please note that you’ll purchase one ticket, that covers both halves of the workshop.

Feminist Ticketing Tiers

As part of our exploration of feminist pricing strategies, we'll be using a tiered ticket format.

The Steadfast Ticket is for folx who are financially secure and covers the cost of your participation.

The Supporters Ticket is for folx who are able to contribute, beyond the cost of your own ticket, to add funds to the Community-Resourced Ticket Pool.

The Solidarity Ticket is for folx with limited financial resources; your tickets will be supported by the community and by CV.

Currently, 20% of anticipated tickets are available at the Solidarity level. I'm hoping to have 20 folks sign up, so this would include 4 Solidarity tickets. More will be added as/if the workshop signups grow.

Community Members -- Finally, people who are already members of the Feminist Enterprise Commons (FEC) can get $5 off their ticket, using a code I've posting on the event listing in the FEC. FEC members already pay for access to the community, and I'll be contributing $5 to the FEC for each non-FEC ticket, to pay for the FEC hosting our materials and later our conversation.

Media Consent

We will be recording portions of this workshop, and these recorded portions might be used in later workshops. We expect to record and possibly re-use only the parts of the workshop where CV presents an initial Feminist Accountability framework, strategies and tactics along with the full group's discussion. The breakout room conversations will not be recorded. Recordings will be used privately by CV to improve the workshop and will not be shared outside the participant group. By registering for this workshop, you understand and acknowledge that your image and voice may be recorded during the group portion and used for learning purposes. If you have concerns about your image or voice being used for these purposes, please email cv@feministsatwork.com and we'll work something out.