Secular Women Work: A Conference for Getting It Done

Do you like women? Do you like a secular society? Do you like doing activism? We have the conference for you.

Introducing 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.

Especially since word on the street is that Women in Secularism will not be happening this year, it’s great to have another option for a woman-centric conference. If you’d like to support this great project, head over to the Kickstarter for more information and ticket sales. Out very own Surly Amy is providing jewelry as part of the incentive structure. It really doesn’t get better than that.

A huge shout out to organizers Stephanie Zvan, Chelsea DuFresne, and Monette Richards for putting together the conference. Make sure you bookmark their website for regular updates.