I was registered for a Women’s Leadership Summit run by women, for women and about women. I had a recurring thought during and after the event: we need more men. We need more male, transgender and nonbinary people to attend future Women’s Leadership Summits because the notion that this was solely an event for women is wrong. The speeches may have been directed at a majorly female audience, but the messages were not gender specific. Also, there is the simple truth of the matter: womanhood affects us all.
Take the keynote speeches. Irene Maya Ota, academic program manager in the U’s College of Social Work, expounded on her personal narrative of being a Japanese-American woman in the 1950s and onward.