Oh hey. Are you a woman and/or do you dig supporting really cool things that women create around Portland? Well, the city’s calendar is chock-full of options in the coming weeks to celebrate and connect (and drink with) local women who do amazing things, from risky queer writers and equal pay warriors to bartenders and chefs. Here are three events worth checking out.

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… help women crush the wage gap and combat toxic manbaby culture whilst nibbling eats from Irving Street Kitchen?

Less than two years ago, Claire Wasserman launched Ladies Get Paid, a national network of town halls, happy hours, and leadership training sessions dedicated to helping women negotiate higher pay and kick ass at work. Today, LGP boasts thriving chapters in 20+ cities, including Portland*. Women regularly gush online and in person about the lasting impact of the group’s events for female identifying and non-binary people. And then? LGP got sued by a group of men's rights advocates with the National Coalition for Men for gender discrimination. (The same lawyer has brought 300 similar lawsuits in California, including suits targeting the Violence Against Women Act and the Oakland As…for handing out ball caps to women on Mother’s Day.) Wasserman and a handful of California-based LGP organizers were named in the suit. In the face of prohibitively expensive legal bills, LGP settled out of court this spring. Yeah, it’s a lot.

Portland’s own LGP PDX partners with the Nightwood Society for a fundraiser (open to all!) dubbed Ladies Get Sued on Monday, June 11, to help cover the group’s legal bills and stockpile funds to mount more LGP empowerment initiatives. Expect a talk from LGP PDX ambassadors and lots of lively, cathartic networking. The eats will be provided by the Nightwood’s own talented women-led crew and Irving Street Kitchen’s Sarah Schafer (expect mini butterscotch puddings!), while drinks come courtesy Portland Monthly. (You didn’t think we were missing out on this did you?) 7 p.m. Mon, June 11, Nightwood Society, 2218 NE Broadway St. $30. More info here.

*In Portland, LGP sparked so much interest that local chapter ambassadors (including Swift Collective’s Christina Melander, aka PoMo editor in chief Zach Dundas’s wife) launched their own women’s mentoring offshoot For the Women. FTW hosts accountability groups for ambitious women led by mentors from local businesses and organizations including Wieden & Kennedy, Swift, and, yes, Portland Monthly.

… get an earful from a bunch of brave, risk-taking writers?

Every month, Jenny Forrester’s Unchaste Readers series lavishes love on risky writing from first-timers and seasoned authors that “shows the raw, vulnerable, ecstatic, complicated lives of women, gender non-binary and gender-nonconforming people.” June’s Unchaste Readers Pride Month session is devoted to eight dynamic voices, from Vonn Jensen and Storm Blue to poet and historian Rhiannon Orizaga and former local journalist Caryn Brooks, who nowadays describes herself as “a civil servant with a stand-up comedy habit.” Literary Arts’s downtown HQ provides the setting. Expect all the feels. 7 p.m. Wed, June 20, Literary Arts, 925 SW Washington St. Free. More info here. 

… drink lady-made gin and rub shoulders with some of the city’s ace female bartenders?

Portland’s Freeland Spirits, the collective baby of boozemakers Jill Kuehler and Molly Troupe, with Carman Ranch maven Cory Carman, of is one of the nation’s only women-owned and operated distilleries. The trio celebrate the launch of the operation’s new Northwest Portland distillery and tasting room with Freeland’s First Flight, a Grand Opening event featuring a handful of the city’s best female bartenders, including Leah Brown (Angel Face), Angie Ross (Clyde Common), and Kacee Solis (Bar Casa Vale). Sip Freeland’s herbaceous gin, take a tour and eyeball the gigantic 500-gallon German copper pot used to make its spirits, and chow on Tastebud Pizza. Plus, music from local futuristic R&B treasure Chanti Darling. Proceeds are earmarked for nonprofit Friendly House, so spend liberally. 6–10 p.m. Sat, July 14, Freeland Spirits, 2671 NW Vaughn St. Free entry; $5 tokens can be used for cocktails, pizza slices, and Friendly House donations. More info here.