CODE OF CONDUCT
This code of conduct represents a document of how we expect our members, founders, ambassadors, and all participants in our community to act towards one another.
Women in Tech & Cyber Hub, or WiTCH for short, is building a community for women in technology, cyber, STEM and our allies. We are dedicated to providing a harassment-free and inclusive community experience for everyone. While we use the words “woman/women” we welcome everyone who identifies as a female, non-binary, genderqueer, genderfluid, agender, and all minority genders. If you feel like you might belong in our community, you absolutely do.
At WiTCH, we endeavor to treat all humans with inherent dignity and do not tolerate harassment in any form. This is regardless of gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disabilities, neurodiversity, mental health, physical appearance, body size, ethnicity, nationality, race, age, religion, or any other protected category. This list is not intended to be exhaustive but serves as a basis of categories to consider. We take violations of our policy seriously and will respond appropriately.
Our community comes from many different backgrounds and from many different career paths and we must be mindful that we have a broad variety of background, skills and education levels. The one thing that unites us is our love of STEM and technology.
WE STRIVE TO BE
WE ARE RESPECTFUL
In the immortal words of Bill & Ted, be excellent to each other. Treat everyone with respect and participate in the community knowing everyone deserves to be here- and that each of us has a right to enjoy our experience without fear of harassment, discrimination, condescension, whether blatant or via micro-aggression. Consider what you are saying and how it would feel if it were said to you or about you.
WE WILL SPEAK UP
Harassment is not tolerated, and you are empowered to politely engage when you or others are disrespected. The person making you feel uncomfortable may not be aware of what they are doing, and politely bringing their behaviour to their attention is encouraged.
Harassment includes offensive verbal comments related to gender, gender identity and expression, age, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, religion, technology choices, sexual images in public spaces, deliberate intimidation, stalking, following, harassing photography or recording, sustained disruption of talks or other events, inappropriate physical contact, and unwelcome sexual attention.
If a participant engages in harassing or uncomfortable behaviour, the event organizers may take any action they deem appropriate, including warning or expelling the offender from the event. If you are being harassed or feel uncomfortable, notice that someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns, contact a member of the event staff immediately.
WE ARE CONSTRUCTIVE
We want to foster an environment of feedback, discussion, collaboration, and healthy debate to support women and help personal and professional growth. Being constructive sometimes means giving constructive criticism, however this means building on someone’s idea not tearing it down. This applies to everything from social media to events.
WE PROMOTE GROWTH & LEARNING
This group has been created to help facilitate women coming together to learn from each other and grow with each other. We will value and promote a growth mindset which believes that talent can be developed through hard work and input, instead of an innate gift.
This means we will expect that you keep an open mind to learning and put in effort to advance both yourself and others as part of our community.
We whole heatedly believe there is no such thing as a stupid question.
WE RESPECT PRIVACY
WiTCH respects privacy and treats personal data with reverence and attention to ensure the safety and security of our community. We will ask for consent of data and photos from all members and community participants and ask that they do the same.
Unfortunately harassment is still common, especially online and at events both in and out of STEM and technology. Creating an official policy aims to improve this by setting clear guidelines of what we expect from our members and that harassment of anyone, for any reason is unacceptable within our community both online and at our events. We hope that by clearly defining expectations for behavior that it may discourage poor behavior and encourage and support those who have previously had bad experiences realize there is a safe space for them.
This document is based on and influenced by several other community policies including: Womanthology, Women Who Code, BSides Cheltenham’s Code of Conduct, and Women in Voice.