Gender Equity and Reconciliation International, GERI, founded by William Keepin and Cynthia Brix, has convened hundreds of intensive workshops and training for transforming gender relations between women and men in nine countries over the past 27 years. Thousands of women and men have jointly confronted gender oppression and sexual violation in GERI’s programs and moved through the ensuing challenges together—to reach a rare place of mutual healing on inter-gender and community levels. Gender Equity and Reconciliation International by William Keepin, Ph.D. Gender Equity and Reconciliation International offers multiple programs including the #MeToo to #WeToo training that focuses on transforming gender relations between women and men, as a co-gender response to the #MeToo movement. Other Gender Equity and Reconciliation International programs include dedicated training for LGBTQI populations and pilot pieces of training for People of Color. Guided by the twin powers of truth and compassion, GERI programs entail a process of collective healing and reconciliation, supported by skillful facilitation and post-workshop follow-up groups. The methodology is summarized in Martin Luther King, Jr.’s declaration that “Injustice and corruption will never be transformed by keeping them hidden, but only by bringing them out into the light, and confronting them with the power of love.” Gender Equity and Reconciliation International ’s versatile and resilient methodology has enabled its successful implementation in highly diverse cultural contexts ranging from the United States, Canada, U.K., and Australia, to India, South Africa, Kenya, and Colombia. GERI has shown that, contrary to popular fears or misconceptions, when mixed-gender forums are skillfully convened and facilitated, they can become powerful crucibles in which men and women confront and dissolve old patterns of destructive gender dynamics, move through the pain and tribulation, and collaboratively forge a new culture of gender relations. The Gender Equity and Reconciliation International process consistently produces…
