Mel Choyce is an outstanding member of the WordPress community. In this post, which is actually a follow-up to one she wrote two years ago, she talks about the environment for women in the WordPress and web communities.
Quite honestly, you literally can’t turn around without walking into an awesome woman doing something great with WordPress. Women are designing, and coding, and supporting, and speaking, and leading. Seeing that kind of representation, from people who look like you? It’s incredibly empowering. It makes you want to become a part of the community, because you know that people like you have already been welcomed.
Unfortunately, the WordPress community is a bright and shining star for inclusion, in comparison to Mel’s take on the broader tech community:
I honestly feel like there has probably never been a worse time to be a vocal, prominent woman in tech. Levels of harassment have escalated from casual misogyny and sexism to outright terrorism.
We always have work to do to make all people feel included, and to ensure mutual and constant respect of one another. Diversity and inclusion is not a passive act, it’s a constant and diligent one. Perpetrators must be called out. Mel’s post is a good reminder that while WordPress has generally done a great job, the tech world is miles from perfect as a whole, and there is work to do.
