Gender justice in the age of the manosphere

Global 50/50 presents Gender justice in the age of the manosphere, kicking off its new event series convening leading voices to advance the gender justice movement.  

Across the world, gender justice is facing powerful opposition. From the rise of the manosphere and online misogyny to organised and well-funded anti-gender movements, hard-won gains on equality are being contested, reframed, and rolled back in a sustained though often chaotic attempt to build a new authoritarian gender order. 

Hosted by Global 50/50, a Cambridge-based nonprofit think tank, this event brings together two globally influential thinkers on gender and power – Laura Bates and Raewyn Connell – to examine what is driving this authoritarian turn, how masculinities are being mobilised politically, and what resistance and solidarity can look like now. 

Moving beyond moral panic, the conversation will place today’s contestation on the concept of gender in historical context, explore how technology has supercharged misogyny and male-supremacist politics, and ask what it would mean for all people, institutions, and movements to actively support gender justice. 

The talk will be followed by a networking drinks reception and photo exhibit from This is Gender, a visual storytelling initiative that mobilises imagery from around the world to reimagine gender justice. 

Laura Bates is an activist, writer, speaker and journalist. She is the founder of the Everyday Sexism Project, an ever-increasing collection of over 200,000 testimonies of gender inequality. Laura is the bestselling author of 9 books, including her latest, The New Age of Sexism: How the AI Revolution is Reinventing Misogyny. 

Raewyn Connell is a feminist sociologist who has been globally influential in developing a social theory of gender relations and co-founding the study of masculinities.  She is the author of 24 books, the latest of which is Trans Lives, and is Professor Emerita at the University of Sydney.