Use this checklist to help you avoid common pitfalls of women in tech groups.
Look at your group's actions
- Do your group's events support people from a range of backgrounds?
- How much prominence does your organisation give to men?
- Does your group accept sponsorship from companies with anti-women policies or behaviours?
- Does your group have a code of conduct for their events, showing that it recognises the existence of harassment and other such problems?
Look at your group's public presence and communications
- Do you use the word "feminist" in your "About Us" writing or otherwise state your political identity?
- Do you describe your theory of change in your "About Us" writing? (Eg "teaching women to survive in existing workplace culture will mean women eventually achieve equal wealth and power" is quite different from "changing existing workplace culture will mean that people without male privilege achieve equal outcomes")
- Do your logos/icons/stickers etc portray humans? Are they young, white, conventionally pretty, etc? Avoid this. (It can be easier to avoid human or human-like logos entirely.)
- Do your group's public communications show a wide range of women involved — by age, ethnicity, ability, appearance, etc? (See: Intersectionality)
- Does your group use the word “girls” or other infantilising or sexualising words for women, without any apparent sense of irony?
See also
- Dropping the F Bomb article on geekfeminism.org, which inspired this list.
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