Mexico's biggest university holds feminism conference with no female panellists

The event will be moderated by Marta Lamas, one of Mexico's most prominent feminists.

Called “Marta Lamas in dialogue with XY,” a reference to the male chromosome, the debate will be “different and provocative”, according to Lamas.

“I have spent 48 years discussing feminism on panels only with women,” she told the BBC. “And this time I thought, 'Okay, let's see what men have to say' ... I am trying to change the world for men, too.”

Lamas, who helped choose the panellists, said she had expected some backlash but not online outrage.

On Twitter, one woman called it the pinnacle of “mansplaining.” Another asked, “What’s next? A conference on racism with only white people?”

The event was organised by the university’s humanities department in honour of Lamas’ 70th birthday. The anthropologist and political science professor has written several books on feminism and in the 1980s led a successful campaign to decriminalise abortion in Mexico.