Great initiative, more diversity early on really is beneficial overall. I think articles or posts about women and non-binary persons talking about their experience as contributors would be interesting to learn about [if there are and I’m just being ignorant please let me know 
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I understand that what you want to accomplish with a separate category for women is something good. I really do. The way I see it though is that if we want equality we shouldn’t divide the people into men and women. Creating a category for women is like admitting that they are different than men, isn’t it?! We are all the same. I’d really like to hear your thoughts on that @chasechapman @catjam I’m interested in finding the truth through conversation and I have no intention to quarrel.
Hi ROSO, welcome to the IC forums and glad to see you have found this thread from last year!
This is an interesting point but I believe you might be missing the reasoning behind the creation of the WNBIC initiative.
Research has shown that diversity in the workplace affects a company’s profitability, problem solving capabilities, and job satisfaction.
If we break down the numbers in Index Coop (I am unsure of the stats within the entire ecosystem so will not comment on that), we can see that out of 86 core contributors, only 12 are women (calculated in percentage terms that is 14%).
The thoughts behind the intentional push of creating an environment where we are sourcing women and marginalised folks are due to the fact the current landscape is incredibly imbalanced. In fact, we see this when we look inwards at our own organisation. When a man joins Index Coop, he is immediately surrounded by other men. There is a higher probability of having shared life experiences, thus creating a welcoming/comforting environment. As a woman/marginalised person walking into Index, you are not greeted by the same experience. Some may stay and push through the uncomfortable tension, but some may leave.
We hope that by creating and signalling a safe space within Index and the crypto space as a whole, we can uplift women & marginalised folks to start contributing on a regular basis. To reiterate, the point is not to exclude anyone from any working group. Rather, the point is to create a space where everyone can be included. We hope that one day we can disband the WNBIC pod, because the real ‘win’ we can have is an environment where no more intentional diversity push is necessary :).
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I wish I could write as well as you do, honestly!! Thanks for taking the time to answer so thoroughly. What you do seems to work. I’d be shocked if there were more than 10% women in the entire crypto space and as you said in Index it’s 14%. I recognise the good intention behind this. I am with you and I believe that there should be something like that for nationalities as well. But can you imagine a category for black people?
I believe that we should think more about the phrasing. The language divides. It is built that way in order to explain the reality through differences.
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You misunderstood me. The fact that I want to think about the best way to accomplish a goal, challenging the way we already do this, only suggests that I also believe in it. Please don’t be offended. I’d love more than anything to see a world in which you don’t need to have a separate category for everyone we consider “different”.
Diversity should be the norm, not something we strive for.
My point with the first comment was to discuss on what the best way to reach that goal is.
I’m only interested in the truth. If the truth is that what I say is of no use then I am fine with that.
But people created racism in the first place by dividing people into categories. black-white, russians-Americans, Christians-jews, men-women, gay - straight, fat- thin, smart-idiot… I hope you see what I’m saying. My one and only purpose of saying what I say is to see the reality of oneness. Anyway, I didn’t mean to offend anyone. I am sorry. In Greek I’d explain it better 
love all <3
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@ROSO Hey I do not believe you offended anyone 
I was also a doubter of this working group at a certain point of time, since I did not find the female contributors I worked with were any different from men. However, in reflection, I do feel crypto as a whole, and Index Coop included, is still a “boys club”, where people call each other sers without asking their gender. And a lot of the memes are clearly visualised through guys’ lens. Not perceivable to me, but there certainly are women who find it intimidating to break into this community. The WnNB WG provides them with A CHOICE to seek help and advice (if they so choose to) ,being the minority in this space. This working group is created and managed by female contributor. Although as a guy I am not able to fully understand the barriers women face to join and thrive in this community, I think this WG is created for a reason, one should be respected.
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I would love to participate in the mentorship program. Ready to listen, learn, and build.