Four leading feminist thinkers will be among the speakers at Cambridge's 10th Gender Symposium on Friday 9 March.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Alison Richard will open the day of lectures and discussions, at the Howard Building, Downing College, entitled “Gender: The Future.”

Speakers will include Carole Pateman, Professor of Political Science at UCLA, who will give the first lecture on “The Sexual Contract in a Global Era,” revisiting her groundbreaking research on social contracts and gender: marriage contracts, employment contracts, the prostitution contract and the surrogacy contract.

Later in the day Professor Carol Gilligan, University Professor in the School of Law, New York and Professor Juliet Mitchell, founding Director of the Cambridge University Centre for Gender Studies will reflect on the past, present and future of the centre, which has been the home to innovative gender research for the past ten years.

To close the conference, Catherine MacKinnon, ‘Elizabeth A. Long Professor' in the University of Michigan Law School and noted anti-pornography campaigner will share her thoughts on the future of gender.

Experts will also explore other topics throughout the day, including discrimination and Islam in the context of the post 9/11 era, and the role of genetics and Darwinism in analysing gender relations.

“This conference is a great opportunity to hear major figures in law, science, philosophy and critical theory, debate current gender politics and talk about what's going to happen in the future,” said Dr Helen Morales, Senior Lecturer in Classics at Cambridge, who has been co-organising the day.

The event is free and open to all. It will run from 10am – 5pm (registration from 9.45am).

For more information on this and all other Gender Studies events, visit the link above right.

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