A petition calling on Massey University to cancel  "Feminism 2020" has attracted nearly 5000 signatures.

Hosted by online campaign platform OurActionStation, the petition, started on Wednesday,  had 4769 signatures by 4pm on Friday.

It had been organised by Massey Wellington Students' Association (MAWSA) in response to the university's plans to host "Feminism 2020" on campus in November.

The booking has drawn controversy due to anti-transgender rhetoric from the event's speakers, such as Canadian blogger Meghan Murphy, who has been banned from Twitter for violating its "hateful conduct" policy.

The event has been organised by Speak Up For Women (SUFW), which has campaigned against gender self-identification on birth certificates and the inclusion of transgender women in sport.

Petition organiser Charlie Myer said the university shouldn't be "facilitating this kind of discussion".

He and UniQ co-president Jaden Brooks had formed a group of on-campus supporters who opposed the event's presence on campus.

Feminism 2020 "could have [the event] anywhere" but it wasn't appropriate for them to hold it at a university, which was supposed to support transgender students.

SUFW's "themes" were "bridging into hate speech" and were "so damaging", Myers said.

He disputed the group was feminist and simply meeting to discuss women's issues. "If your feminism isn't intersectional, it isn't feminism."

Gender Minorities Aotearoa (GMA) national coordinator Ahi Wi-Hongi said the only activism they had seen SUFW do was centred around transgender women.

"And all of that takes the view that trans women are not women. That's transphobic."

Wi-Hongi said GMA emailed a number of people in senior management at Massey, including vice chancellor Jan Thomas, "about six or seven days ago", with their concerns.

No one had replied.

On Tuesday, spokesperson for diversity and inclusion accreditation business Rainbow Tick Martin King said if Massey did not cancel the event it was likely it would trigger a review of its accreditation.

Last Friday, Massey University said they didn't support Speak Up For Women's message and would be donating any proceeds to a "sexual or gender-diverse group" and signs, flags and posters would be placed around campus ahead of the event.

Approached on Friday, a Massey University spokesperson said the university "will not be making any further comment at this time".