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Introducing Gender Equity at Coda

The group that was formerly known as Women+ is now called Gender Equity at Coda.

Gender Equity at Coda is an employee resource group for women, trans people, non-binary people, and other marginalized genders.


Our mission is to advance the growth and equity of women, trans people, non-binary people, and other marginalized genders both at Coda and beyond. Furthermore, we seek to partner with members of other marginalized communities to drive intersectional diversity and inclusion initiatives internally and externally.

What inspired the change?

At the end of July, our group read several articles related to gender inclusivity:
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On the Design of Women’s Spaces
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Uplifting Diverse Genders: Beyond “Women and Non-Binary”
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How to create inclusive employee resources groups at work
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An excerpt from the “Intersectionality” chapter from Ijeoma Oluo’s So You Want to Talk About Race

There were a couple key takeaways from these readings:
While most people recognize that women are underrepresented in the workforce (especially in tech), there are other genders that are often overlooked. People who are not women (e.g. trans men and non-binary people) can still be affected by issues that are traditionally seen as women’s issues. For instance, some trans men can still get pregnant, so discussions regarding menstruation or parental leave after giving birth are still relevant to them.
Our group was originally open to “anyone who identifies as a woman”, but this excluded the voices of other people who have also faced oppression and discrimination based on their gender identities.
Labels are important to the queer community. For example, labels are often used to filter out spaces that may not be as welcoming to trans and non-binary people. Simply implying or suggesting inclusivity is not enough, so we must be explicit about who is welcome in our group.
We added a line to our mission statement as a commitment to prioritizing intersectionality in our discussions and work as a group. While we don’t have many formal ERGs at Coda yet, there are plenty of ways for us to work with underrepresented groups inside and outside of Coda.

Right over familiar

This model of having an all-encompassing group for all marginalized genders may not feel familiar, but we’ve chosen it because it shows an understanding that gender equality cannot be achieved unless we consider how these issues can affect all marginalized genders. At the same time, the existence of this group does not mean there shouldn’t be a separate safe space for trans and non-binary people, either as a subgroup of Gender Equity at Coda or as its own separate entity.
Diverse perspectives are welcome here and make our group stronger.

Contact us at
gender-equity@coda.io
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