In the new season of the Gender at Work podcast – What's Love Got to Do With It? – we ask the question - can love in the vision of Audre Lord, bell hooks, Martin Luther King, Desmond Tutu, Mahatma Gandhi and so many social justice leaders worldwide, help us in shifting systems of oppression. How does social justice action from the basis of love help us to transform ourselves while also eliminating the profound cruelty and manipulation we see all around us? And how are women and gender equality leaders incorporating these questions and values into their practice? We also explore ideas and practical solutions that are based on love, on connection, coexistence, and understanding.

Our opening episode features Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda, the Deputy Executive Director of UN Women. Nyaradzayi, a Zimbabwean national and lawyer, has a long history of activism on issues of women's rights and gender equality. She is the founder and former executive director of the Rosario Memorial Trust in Zimbabwe and prior to that served as the General Secretary of the World YWCA. Nyaradzayi was appointed the first African Union Goodwill Ambassador on Ending Child Marriage.

What is love? For Nyaradzayi it means "saying no to discrimination". She says that "we need a world that respects diversities" and that "if we have love, we have courage". We are inspired by this brave and eloquent feminist warrior who draws on her vast experience to lead with justice from the halls of the UN to rural communities and organizations around the world and who explains how to organize with love.