Finally! A full, rich conversation and practice of Feminist Business is emerging, as entrepreneurs, coaches, mentors, teachers, and business people are claiming the core ideas of feminism as tools for transforming how we work together, how we produce together, how we support our right livelihoods, and how we organize our economy.
Our conversation is spirited and enthusiastic, and it is also often disconnected and uneven.
Let's fix that.
We need all. the. words. to describe what we believe. We need simple definitions for the terms we use to convey big ideas. We need an analysis and an understanding to support the concepts we share with each other. We need to be able to explain why we believe what we do so that we can inspire others.
With a shared foundation in key feminist constructs, we’ll be able to connect across our community and increase our impact.
In this workshop, we’ll take a whirlwind tour through concepts and analyses that you’re likely to need as you put feminism into practice in your business, coaching, and teaching.
==> This session will be held from 12 ET to 2:00 ET in Toronto & New York// in London 7-9 pm GMT // Vancouver 10 am-12 pm PT <==
Overview
This workshop assumes that even the most enthusiastic feminists might have gaps in their ability to explain and apply feminist ideas they deeply believe. Having a chance to re-view and renew a host of feminist concepts will help participants put their ideas into words and identify areas of feminist thinking that they want to explore next.
Concepts we’ll discuss include:
An inclusive, collective, transformational definition of feminism
How to work with the fact that there are so many different takes on feminism
Why flourishing (and not just the end of oppression) is the goal of feminism
Women as a political category
The power dynamics of gendering, how the strategies that lead us to accept “dominance gendering” are also deployed in other systems of oppression
“Expressive gendering” versus “dominance gendering” (Harquail)
Dominance Gendering as a colonialist, imperialist, racist practice
Feminist vs. feminine, and why we advocate for feminism
Feminism and anti-oppression
White feminism: what it is and how not to get caught there
Why Feminism and not Humanism, Equalism, or World Peace
Intersectionality (Crenshaw), Kyriarchy (Schussler Fiorenza), and the relationship between them (Harquail)
Dominance systems vs Partnership systems (Eisler)
Five Values promoted by Feminists (Harquail)
You can tell from this list of concepts and the fact that this workshop is only two hours long that we’ll only get to *introduce* these ideas. My intent is not for you to leave with all the answers, but rather for you to have a richer more detailed map of feminisms, and a whole lot of better questions to pursue.
[[ Please note that this workshop is not designed to help you understand feminist business and feminist business practice (it focuses on the “feminist” part of feminist business). For that, you’ll want to participate in the second part of this series, Feminism for Business: Challenging Conventions and Inventing New Practice, which I’ll host later this Spring. ]]
Who this workshop is for:
This workshop is for entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, coaches, and teachers who want to bring feminist ideas into their business and want a contemporary, coherent picture of concepts at the core of many different feminist conversations.
Participants should have a firm commitment to challenging the ideas I’ll share with their own lived experiences and learning so that you can personalize the practical implications of these ideas.
Finally, participants should feel comfortable with the idea that the workshop will not cover everything that’s important to know about feminisms. Every concept that’s included will be important, but not every important feminist concept/ conversation will be included.
This workshop will work best for folx 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.
Conversely, 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.
Our Approach
This workshop will follow a (more) feminist pedagogical approach. Although most of our time together will be me talking and using slides (rather than small group conversations and exercises) I don’t want to call this a ‘webinar’ because webinars are framed too much on the one-sided, ‘banking model’ of learning and that’s not how I see this unfolding. I invite you to (and assume that you will) engage actively, not only during the workshop but also after the session. Rather than expecting you to “grab ideas and go”, you’re invited to dwell, muse, consider, and question. Even if I’m talking a lot.
Expectations
Before the session, I’ll ask you to answer a few questions about your interests so that I can shape the emphasis of the session.
At the start of our time together, I’ll ask you to review, possibly modify, and then agree to a set of group participation norms.
I’ll also ask you to share with me, anonymously, your feedback about the process of the session and your reflections on the content of the session.
Finally, I’ll invite you to consider a few private “take home” reflection questions to build your own wisdom.
Caveats:
I’ll be drawing on the work I’ve presented in Chapter One of my book, Feminism: A Key Idea for Business (Routledge, 2020) along with my keynote talks at the Entrepreneurial Feminism Forums (2018 & 2019), and my more recent explications and conceptualizations. I’ll also draw on what I’ve been learning with my entrepreneurial feminist community, particularly with Kelly Diels, Kimberly George, and Petra Kassun-Mutch. That said, much of the material I will share will be new, experimental exposition. You will not have heard this all before.
Although I’ll be speaking from my academic expertise and taking the role of a scholar/teacher, I’m not planning to impose my views as though they are objective or the only relevant way to understand things. So that you know the constraints and boundary conditions on the perspectives I’ll be sharing, I’ll be sure to identify my own standpoint and positionality at the start of our time together. I'll also ask you to consider your own standpoint and positionality as you explore these ideas. And, I'll be sure to define standpoint and positionality to you know what I'm talking about and why it matters.
This workshop will be focused on feminist ideas emerging from an Anglophone, North American conversation, including intersectional feminisms, Black feminisms, and materialist feminisms. It will not include a full introduction to all relevant feminisms (there are so many!) and unfortunately will not include feminist thinking of the Global South, Turtle Island Indigenous feminisms, Chicana feminism, or psychoanalytic feminism. Even though I’ll draw on concepts from feminist epistemology and ontology, sociology, social psychology, and organizational theory, the conversation will be accessible and welcoming to folks who haven’t studied these disciplines formally.
Feminist Ticketing Tiers
As part of our exploration of feminist pricing strategies, we'll be using a tiered ticket format.
For details and tickets, see Eventbrite!
Media Consent
Consent is a feminist issue, and getting consent to record our session and to send you emails is very important to me. So, please read this next section….
Recording: We will be recording portions of this workshop, and these recorded portions might be used in later workshops. Breakout room conversations will not be recorded. Only sections that feature CV speaking will be shared outside the actual session. By registering for this workshop, you understand and consent to the idea that your image and voice may be recorded. Your image in the Zoom gallery might appear later in video clips that CV shares, but your voice and personal comments will not be shared. If you have concerns about your image or voice being recorded for these purposes, please email cv@feministsatwork.com and we'll work something out.
Emails: Signing up for this class will automatically put you on the email list for the Feminism&Business newsletter, so that I can keep you up-to-date on issues and workshops. Know that you can unsubscribe at any time, and that I will keep your information private.
Because this session will not have small group breakouts other than for our introductions, you will not be asked to share your email or contact information with other participants. You may, if you like, use direct messaging in the zoom chat channel to invite one-to-one connection.
Please email me at cv@feministsatwork.com if you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions.