Presidential
|
S. Kent Butler, ACA President,
2021-2022
#ShakeItUp
#TapSomeoneIn |
In addition to two other taskforce initiatives as part of his presidential service year, Dr. Butler brought together members of the Counselor Education and professional counseling communities to consider the diverse gender identities that represent us, our colleagues, our students, clients, family, friends, and society. Our taskforce (now an ACA Interest Network) considers gender to be socially-constructed through traditional norms and expectations, and the implicit and explicit messages we receive from our environments. It was historically set up as a binary system that left out a vast group of people.
Over the past year, the taskforce took a close look at how society influences gender and the oppression many people experience because of it.
We viewed gender here from three different and broad identity perspectives: transgender and gender expansive (TGE) people, girls and women, and boys and men. We did this with the aim of breaking the binary – deconstructing gender socialization in society and the ways our clients and others (perhaps, we) have been caged by it. Additionally, we considered our clients and students through an intersectional lens because gender factors in with our other significant identities in so many of the spaces and places where we live, study, work, worship, relax, and play.
In addition to three articles published on Counseling Today Online in April, May, and June of 2022, we had a panel discussion at the 2022 American Counseling Association Conference and we created this site as a repository of resources for practitioners and counselor educators.
We hope you will be able to use this material to refresh or expand your understanding of gender identity and to support your clients and students (and others) in considering their own relationships to gender socialization and their continual identity development processes.
~The Gender Equity Taskforce Team
Over the past year, the taskforce took a close look at how society influences gender and the oppression many people experience because of it.
We viewed gender here from three different and broad identity perspectives: transgender and gender expansive (TGE) people, girls and women, and boys and men. We did this with the aim of breaking the binary – deconstructing gender socialization in society and the ways our clients and others (perhaps, we) have been caged by it. Additionally, we considered our clients and students through an intersectional lens because gender factors in with our other significant identities in so many of the spaces and places where we live, study, work, worship, relax, and play.
In addition to three articles published on Counseling Today Online in April, May, and June of 2022, we had a panel discussion at the 2022 American Counseling Association Conference and we created this site as a repository of resources for practitioners and counselor educators.
We hope you will be able to use this material to refresh or expand your understanding of gender identity and to support your clients and students (and others) in considering their own relationships to gender socialization and their continual identity development processes.
~The Gender Equity Taskforce Team
Note: We pulled together many academic, clinical, and popular resources from across our team, but we know there is so much more out there! If you have favorite books / podcasts / films / articles or other resources that you think others would learn and benefit from, please let us know by using this Google Form link.
