Gender Equality vs. Gender Equity

Speakers for this event

• Brandon Wolf

  Brandon Wolf

  Brandon Wolf is a survivor of the 2016 Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando and national advocate for LGBTQ civil rights and gun safety reform. A regular contributor in print and television media outlets, he has dedicated his life to tackling injustice and amplifying the voices of marginalized communities. He is the co-founder and Board Vice President of The Dru Project, a nonprofit organization that creates safe spaces in schools for LGBTQ youth, provides college funding, and empowers champions in the fight for equality. Brandon serves as the Media Relations Manager for Equality Florida, the state’s largest LGBTQ civil rights organization.

• Coach Linda Blade

  Coach Linda Blade

  Linda Blade is a former NCAA All American and National Champion of Canada in track & field (heptathlon) with a PhD in Kinesiology. For the past 26 years, she has run a private consulting business as “Sport Performance Professional” coach in Edmonton, Alberta working with athletes in over 15 sports (beginner to elite). Since 2014, Linda has also served as President of the Board for Athletics Alberta, where she has a duty to represent the province of Alberta at Canadian national sport policy meetings. In a bid to increase public awareness of the threat posed by gender ideology, Linda has partnered with journalist Barbara Kay to author a new book, titled: UNSPORTING: How Trans Activism and Science Denial are Destroying Sport.

• Elaine McArthur

  Elaine McArthur

  Elaine McArthur is the Outreach and Education Coordinator for the areas served by the U.S. EEOC’s Miami District Office, which include Florida, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. In this role, she is tasked with providing public education, technical assistance and outreach. Elaine is also the District’s small business liaison and media contact. Elaine found her niche with the EEOC in 1993 and worked 16 years as an Investigator in the EEOC Tampa Field Office. Her previous federal experience includes employment as both a student worker and later permanent employee of the Panama Canal Commission, and as a civilian employee for the U.S. Department of the Air Force in Arkansas, Georgia and England. She is a proud graduate of The Florida State University, College of Business. Elaine and her husband enjoy spending time with their family and pets. They have two of the world’s most beautiful granddaughters, Stella (age three) and Savannah (four months). Prior to COVID, they enjoyed traveling extensively, have vacationed in six different continents, and are looking forward to resuming those travels again soon.

• Marion Bethel

  Marion Bethel

  Marion Bethel read law at Cambridge University and was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 1985. She is a member of Gray’s Inn. Ms. Bethel was later called to the Bar of The Bahamas in January 1986. She immediately joined the Office of the Attorney General in The Bahamas where she practiced in both criminal and civil courts. In 1994 she commenced work in a private law firm where she continues to practice civil law. Ms. Bethel has been actively involved in the women’s movement in The Bahamas and the Caribbean since the mid-1980s. She has worked in the area of human rights principally in regard to gender equality, gender-based violence against women and girls, sexual health & reproductive rights and abolition of the death penalty. In 2012 Ms. Bethel produced a documentary film entitled Womanish Ways: Freedom, Human Rights and Democracy, The Women’s Suffrage Movement in The Bahamas 1948-1962. In July 2014 Ms. Bethel was awarded the Eleventh CARICOM Triennial Award for Women for her noted contribution to the field of Gender and Development in the Caribbean. She was elected to the Committee of the UN Convention on the Elimination on All Forms of Discrimination Against Women in June 2016 and currently serves on the Committee.

• Mary Luke

  Mary Luke

  MARY M. LUKE, RN, MS, MBA Luke is Vice President of the UN Women USA Board of Directors and President Emeritus, Senior Advisor to UN Women USA NY board. She is also Vice President of PowHerNY, a coalition promoting gender and racial justice in New York State; Co-chair of NYC4CEDAW Act; Advisor to Women of Color (WOC) in Fundraising and Philanthropy; member of the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF), and Asian Women Giving Circle. She is an active member of the NGO-CSW, which organizes civil society participation on women and gender issues at the UN, including the recent Generation Equality Forum with UN Women. In her career spanning 35 years, Luke is a global leader in women’s reproductive healthcare and advocate for gender equality and women’s empowerment. In the 1980s, she was Executive Director for 9 years at Planned Parenthood San Francisco, Alameda. She began her career in international women’s health as Vice President at CEDPA, a women’s development organization. She was then based in Bangkok, Thailand as Regional Director for Asia, with Planned Parenthood Federation. She was Vice President for Programs at Ipas, in North Carolina, a position from which she retired in 2017. Luke designed and managed women’s healthcare and development programs in 20 countries in Asia, Africa, Middle East and Latin America. She also led delegations of women leaders to the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo, Egypt and the Fourth World Conference on Women (FWCW) in Beijing, China in 1995. Luke has a BS, MS in Nursing from Boston University and an MBA from Golden Gate University in San Francisco, CA She resides in Brooklyn, NY.

• Toni Van Pelt

  Toni Van Pelt

  Toni Van Pelt, a longtime feminist, and secular humanist served as the president of the National Organization for Women (NOW) from 2017-2020. In that capacity, Van Pelt oversaw NOW’s multi-issue agenda: achieving constitutional equality for women, advancing reproductive rights and justice, promoting racial justice, stopping violence against women, winning civil and human rights for the LGBTQIA+ community, and ensuring economic justice. She currently serves on the board of the Institute for Humanist Studies.