In March 2026, This is Gender was presented in Cambridge as part of Global 50/50’s inaugural In Dialogue event — a new convening space for examining the forces shaping gender justice today. The evening brought together feminist sociologist Raewyn Connell and writer and activist Laura Bates, in conversation with Global 50/50 co-CEO Sarah Hawkes, to explore the rise of the manosphere and the organised, networked nature of contemporary backlash against gender equality.
Presented alongside this discussion, Bodies in Resistance brought these dynamics into view through image.
The exhibition brought together works from across the collection that trace how struggles over gender are lived, contested, and reshaped in everyday life. Moving between protest, institutional power, intimate acts of defiance, and collective expression, the images foregrounded the ways gender is both regulated and resisted — across bodies, communities, and social structures.
Spanning geographies, power structures, lived experiences, and the gender spectrum, the exhibition echoed the questions raised in the discussion: how gender is mobilised politically, how power is consolidated and contested, and how these dynamics are felt and negotiated across different contexts.
In dialogue
Presented within a live, discussion-led setting, the exhibition extended the conversations unfolding across the evening. As speakers examined the scale and structure of anti-gender movements — from digital radicalisation to the reshaping of social norms — the images traced how these forces are encountered, resisted, and reworked in everyday life.
What carries forward
The evening underscored a central proposition: that the politics of gender are never confined to policy or discourse, and that claims for justice are made continuously — in public and private, collectively and individually, across the world.We are grateful to the artists whose work formed Bodies in Resistance, and to all those who contributed to the In Dialogue event. Bringing the exhibition into this setting marked an important moment in connecting visual storytelling with critical debate — and in
Each activation begins with the collection. Explore hundreds of works from across the This is Gender archive — tracing how artists around the world are reimagining gender, power, and justice through image.
From galleries and universities to conferences, festivals, and public programmes, This is Gender is available for exhibition, screening, talks, and collaborative presentation.
Learn more about the curatorial vision, partnerships, and global mission behind This is Gender — and how visual storytelling is being mobilised in the service of gender justice.
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