Feminism has roared to the forefront of the conversation in recent years, becoming a mainstream ideology of pop culture, business, and politics, and claiming spokespeople from Beyoncé to Sheryl Sandberg to Hillary Clinton. In the writing world this also holds true. A recent backlash against gender disparity in the literary community has led to projects like VIDA, whose annual count tallies bylines in major literary publications by gender and holds editors accountable for numbers that skew male. While some improvement can be seen—in recent years VIDA has documented several previously male-dominated magazines inching closer to byline parity—many numbers across disciplines remain stark: In 2015 a Women’s Media Center report found that women on average represented only 37 percent of bylines at major print newspapers, and a Writers Guild of America study found that only 29 percent of television writers in the 2013–2014 season were female. Another initiative on the front lines of the literary feminist movement is the biannual, bicoastal event known as BinderCon, a conference for women and gender-nonconforming writers that will hold its fifth major event in New York City from October 29 to October 30.

Launched in 2014, BinderCon cheekily references former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s infamous “binders full of women” gaffe, which came in response to a question about pay equity for women in a 2012 presidential debate. BinderCon, which alternates between New York City and Los Angeles in order to attract talent from both the publishing industry and Hollywood, combines panels, pitch sessions, keynote addresses, and networking opportunities, aiming its programming at experienced and emerging writers alike.

The idea for the conference began when a clandestine Facebook group of women and gender-nonconforming writers, founded by writer Anna Fitzpatrick, exploded in membership, attracting the interest of Lux Alptraum, a freelance writer specializing in sex and tech who formerly edited fleshbot.com, and Leigh Stein, a poet and author whose third book, the memoir Land of Enchantment, was released by Plume in August. The two wanted to create something similar to the online group, but out in the open and in the flesh. They cofounded the nonprofit organization Out of the Binders and launched their first conference within months of the initial idea. Since then the number of attendees has been on the rise—the last conference in New York brought in five hundred fifty attendees, and Alptraum and Stein expect more in October.

“We’ve been able to do a lot because Leigh and I are both workaholics,” Alptraum says. “But also because we have a social mission that has spoken to a lot of people.” Previous and future speakers include poets, novelists, book editors, agents, activists, investigative reporters, and editors from magazines such as the New Yorker and Rolling Stone. Speakers have included award–winning poet Claudia Rankine, writer and director Gina Prince-Bythewood, journalists Anna Holmes and Jill Abramson, and actor Lisa Kudrow. The keynote speakers for the October conference will be Elif Batuman, Porochista Khakpour, and Anna Quindlen.

This cross section of writers and performers encapsulates what makes BinderCon unique: While there have been feminist conferences for journalists such as Women, Action, and the Media, and women-oriented creative writing residencies such as the Hedgebrook program near Seattle, BinderCon combines the worlds of creative writing, journalism, publishing, and screenwriting, emphasizing the common obstacles that women and gender-nonconforming writers face in these fields, and encouraging attendees to try writing for new outlets.

Sessions and panels at a typical BinderCon include practical topics such as starting newsletters, pitching work to agents, and craft talks on everything from fiction, poetry, copywriting, animation, and personal essays about illness. The BinderCon approach to writing is “about society” more than any industry, says Alptraum. “Fundamentally our approach is about getting women and gender-nonconforming people paid.” This isn’t a conference that involves marching or petitioning for pay equity and parental leave, but it does include those ideas as part of a broader mission: making sexist working and writing environments unacceptable, keeping editors and publishers accountable for the people they hire, and promoting the work of women and other marginalized writers. “People are starting to realize that a writers room or staff of just white dudes is not okay,” says Alptraum.

This past June Alptraum and Stein attended the United State of Women Summit at the White House and saw the same ideas expressed by major figures such as television writer and producer Shonda Rhimes and Michelle and Barack Obama. “Our vision for the world comes from the idea that the stories we’re exposed to affect how we see ourselves,” Stein says. As such, she and Alptraum want to make BinderCon a space where historically marginalized writers can share their stories.

It’s a lofty vision for an organization with no full-time paid staff, which relies on volunteers and sponsorships from foundations and publications to maintain its programming. Alptraum and Stein admit it’s a challenge, but they’re hopeful about BinderCon’s future. One significant goal has been to make the conferences more accessible, with initiatives including child care stipends, transgender-friendly bathrooms, scholarships, and an effort to continually address problems of inclusiveness and intersectionality. Whether or not feminism remains trendy on a national level, being a feminist organization means being open to critique from within, and the BinderCon staff vows to keep improving. “We’ve been listening to the community,” says Stein. Alptraum agrees: “It’s not just about trans and gender-nonconforming writers, but also writers of color and disabled writers. We’ll keep trying to accommodate as many people as possible.”

Sarah M. Seltzer is a writer of fiction, creative nonfiction, journalism, and ill-advised tweets. A lifelong New Yorker, she is the deputy editor of culture website Flavorwire.com [3].