Our Community Standards Statement
Mission: Innovation Women was created to support equal opportunities for women. We believe that public speaking can help support career development, business success, pay and funding equity, thought leadership and expert status, more women in senior management and getting more women on boards. Putting more women on stage helps us disrupt the cycle of bias.
We believe in overall diversity and inclusion – not only because it makes for better, more interesting conversations at events but because it is the right thing to do. Learn more about our mission and accomplishments.
Basic tenets of our community: We’re disrupting the traditional (and somewhat exclusive) world of events and conferences. We are helping event managers and conference organizers find speakers, subject matter experts, thought leaders and visionaries. We want to hear new voices and gain new diverse perspectives.
We support and encourage women and other historically marginalized groups, including people of color, LGBTQ+ people and gender-nonconforming people, to join us, speak up and share their thoughts and perspectives. We welcome allies to our platform.
Community Standards and Where We Draw the Line
There is a difference between bringing innovative ideas and discussions to the stage, and creating an environment of fear, loathing and distrust. There is a difference between public speaking that persuades and educates, and hurtful words that instill fear, panic, or are an incitement to violence.
By the very nature of the events and conferences we support with speakers, there may be times when the talks given by our speakers are at the forefront of science, technology, and social norms. We expect our speakers to be truthful and to make evidence-based statements. They may take part in discussions that could become tense and disruptive.
But we draw the line at combative, abusive, threatening, racist, bigoted, offensive, demeaning and otherwise hateful language. We believe there is a difference between unpopular and offensive views. We will not promote hate groups or speakers whose goal is to further divide, silence or intimidate.
We reject:
- Material which defames, demeans, abuses, or threatens others.
- Statements that are bigoted, prejudiced, discriminatory or racially offensive.
- Material that advocates illegal activity or discusses illegal activities with the intent to act.
- Speakers who knowingly lie, use falsehoods, misrepresentations, and other deceptions.
- Material that contains vulgar, obscene, or indecent language or images.
We expect our community members to:
- Be respectful.
- Be inclusive.
- Be solutions oriented.
- Be welcoming to all and open to discussion and debate.
We look for equal gender representation in education, business, politics, and society. We are committed to achieving the full and equal participation of all. We support all kinds of diversity, gender-equitable, gender-nonconforming, and LGBTQ+ inclusive practices. We support female-friendly practices and reproductive rights like access to birth control and abortion. We support public health mandates that protect us all, especially the most vulnerable and those who cannot protect themselves. We support people who have disabilities.
We believe in science, research, and evidence-based practices. We understand that sometimes more evidence and more research is needed. Our approaches and practices can evolve, and change based on the latest information.
We reserve the right in our sole discretion to terminate someone’s involvement/connection/membership with Innovation Women for any reason or no reason with no notice. This can be on either side of the speaker/event manager relationship. (Please note: we do not allow event managers to charge speakers to speak at their events.)
Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash