CEO Almas Jiwani is looking forward to her speaking engagement at McGill University hosted by the Institute for the Study of International Development (ISID) on the topic of “The Evolution of the Gender Equality Movement.”

“History tends to depict gender equality as women-initiated movements, where suffragettes and feminists banded together to oppose institutions of manifest patriarchy in society. University-level courses often teach history in such a way, where one or two weeks in the term are dedicated to discussing gender as something that strayed from the more popular “Great Man” narrative – a narrative that emphasizes evolution, revolution, and innovation as the products of “great men”. This kind of narrative gives birth to unequal power relations, where women are viewed as traditionally outside structures of power, and perpetuates the misunderstanding of gender as synonymous with women,” says Ms. Jiwani.