The Women Who Write Code of Conduct

What is this Code?

This Code of Conduct is a living document. As the needs of our community change, it will change. It is designed to provide guidance for members on how to interact with other writers so we can work together to create an accountable, welcoming, supportive space that helps every woman and non-binary person to find the time and community to write with joy, regardless of their background, race, ethnicity, nationality, age, ability, religious belief, neurotype, sexuality, gender identity, parental status, financial situation, and writing experience.

It is not a list of rules. These are principles, drawn from our values, that must be merged with judgement and good faith to produce the friendly, productive community we can all thrive in. We ask for you to follow the conduct as best as possible, extend grace when others make honest mistakes, and seek support when you make your own.

Where does this guidance apply?

In short, everywhere and anywhere that we exist as a community.

First and foremost, the Women Who Write (WWW) community is about writing. While our in-person spaces are friendly, joyous and social, meaning we communicate as friends, neighbours and colleagues, our online spaces focus on writing, books and publishing, and we discourage chat outside these topics in our online spaces. However, we understand that our community is made up of women and queer people, and that we face ongoing oppression, so issues about rights, politics and discrimination may come up with regard to writing and the industries surrounding it.

When they do, we reiterate that:

Our community is fundamentally inclusive. This means we recognise that we exist in a society with majority and minority groups, and that the majority — in WWW’s case, able-bodied cis straight white women — must actively be aware of how their behaviour (including speech) impacts the ability of minority groups to participate in our community (including disabled and queer people, people of colour and trans women and non-binary folk). We remember that the way we speak and act can impact whether some of the most marginalised people feel welcome to attend events.

As such, the organisers take energetic action to ensure our group is not just passively tolerant of queer and disabled people, people of colour, and trans and non-binary members, but actively welcoming. 

This means:

We ensure our members do not express discriminatory views at our events and in our online spaces, such as on WhatsApp and social media.

We, as a community, do not express support for racism, homophobia, transphobia, sexism, ableism or other discrimination. We do not support public figures or policies that cause demonstrable harm to marginalised communities. 

We do not expect targeted communities to be silent about their struggles and frustrations. We support marginalised people to advocate for their rights without fear of pushback. We encourage this to be done with a goal to educate and by giving people the benefit of the doubt. However, we extend understanding when minority groups are upset or defensive when asked to justify their fight for equality.

When it comes to transphobia, which we acknowledge is a pertinent issue to our community, we use the Online Hate Prevention Institute’s definition of transphobia, which emphasises the harmful effects of cisgenderism, that is, denying self-identified gender identities.

We ensure that members do not debate issues relating to identities that they are not a part of, except to provide affirming support for the rights or struggles of marginalised people.

We do not tolerate bullying, harassment, trolling, hate speech (towards anyone), disinformation, pile-ons, or bad-faith arguments in the face of high-quality evidence. We report behaviour when we do not feel it meets the standards and values set out in this Code of Conduct.

When members are not able to follow this code and we believe the action was minor or caused by ignorance, we invite the member in question to reflect on the impact of the problem behaviour. For repeat or serious infractions, we will ask members not to attend events and will remove them from the online community. As part of managing community safety, we may message members privately through WhatsApp or email to explain our decision and to provide support where required. Private correspondence about decisions is not an opportunity to defend or justify behaviour that violates this code. 

What should you do if you believe someone has violated this code?

Any member with a concern about another member’s behaviour in our community should speak to the organisation team at events or reach out to us directly at our email, womenwhowriteedinburgh@gmail.com. Please do not respond directly to other members.

What does our Code mean in practice for members?

Create the community you want to be part of. Be kind. Be respectful. Be supportive. Don’t feed the trolls and the folks spoiling for arguments: spoilers and trolls are for the books we write only. Check your privilege! Remember, a point of politics for you may be a matter of survival for someone else. 

Ask, who benefits if I respond here? Would the community and my own peace be better served if I flagged my concern to the organisation team? 

Want to talk about things outside writing, books, and publishing? Come along to one of our events!

What does our Code mean in practice for organisers?

We will act as quickly as possible to address concerns in a fair, values-based way according to this Code of Conduct. We ask for your understanding if this is slower than we would like during normal working hours, as we all maintain full-time jobs.

We will moderate online spaces, ensuring they remain free of spam and content that violates this Code of Conduct. We will use blocking and chat freezing features to prevent or halt behaviour that violates this Code.

We will seek to remind the community of our values and Code when required, and address individuals’ behaviour that does not meet it privately, where we deem this best.

We will seek out venues and partners whose values align with this Code and which are accessible and welcoming to minority groups.

We will update this Code of Conduct as required, and seek to be as transparent about our values and processes as possible.

Got a question?

If you have any questions or concerns about this Code or what it means for you, you can reach out to us at womenwhowriteedinburgh@gmail.com.