How can community psychologists best work towards gender equity?

In this roundtable we invite participants to examine community psychology’s historical and potential contribution to gender equality and equity. A panel of discussants across five countries will present snapshot accounts that taken together:
• review the history of gender inequity and inequality in society and within psychology
• examine the core principles of community psychology through a gender equity lens
• identify feminist and more diversity-aware visions of wellness and liberation for people of all gender identities, locally and globally
• consider how we can all participate in realising such visions and values, as community psychologists and in our personal lives.
The snapshot accounts include:
• how Indonesian psychology’s alienation from notions of class obscures gender-based discrimination and harassment commonly experienced by working-class women, such as those who work as factory labour
• feminist social justice and critical community psychology perspectives on equity in higher education contexts in South Africa
• adolescent girls’ embodiment and friendships within under-resourced communities on the Cape Flats in Cape Town
• operationalising the right to safe and secure accommodation for women and to the economic independence that supports their ability to maintain that housing.
This roundtable represents the next episode in a series of conversations on feminism and community psychology spanning 30 years. We hope it will be an opportunity to continue the dialogue and generate thinking, research and action in both domains.