Terms to designate groups for women

Are you founding a women geeks group? Then you'll probably need a name. Here are some words/terms/names you could use to show that it is for women.

When choosing a name, it's important to be welcoming to trans women and not just cis women. Additionally, if you want to include genderqueer and/or non-binary-identified people who aren't male in your organization, it's worth thinking about how to choose a name that is inclusive.

Women

Examples:

• Tends to be used in university CS groups
• Popular with Linux distros - Debian Women, FedoraWomen, Ubuntu Women, GnomeWomen, KDEWomen
• (GNOME) Outreach Program for Women
• Women in Drupal - formerly DrupalChix
• PHP Women
• WikiWomen
• Ruby Women
• Women Who Code
• Oceania Women of Open Tech (OWOOT)

Pros:

• Probably the most neutral term available now. Less polarizing than other terms.
• Very inclusive to adult women, especially ages 25-120
• Common on restroom signs
• Recommended in journalism by AP Stylebook

Cons:

• Doesn't rhyme with anything
• Younger women and teenagers don't necessarily associate themselves with the term
• Can feel overly formal and businesslike

Ladies

Examples:

• PyLadies
• Lambda Ladies
• Tech Lady Mafia
• Glorious Ladies of Free Software[1]

Pros:

• Commonly reappropriated in hip-hop feminism, e.g. Ladies First by Queen Latifah. Has come back into vogue in recent years [2][3]
• Can be fun in a retro, ironic way, e.g. "Single Ladies" by Beyoncé
• Commonly used on restroom signs in some places, esp. multicultural urban areas
• More casual and playful than "women"
• Commonly used by college-aged women who might not identify with the term "woman" yet. Widely used by sororities. [3]

Cons:

• Offensive in some places and contexts [4]
• Can feel overly old-fashioned
• Can feel classist
• "Woman" preferred over "lady" in journalism. AP Stylebook says, "lady: Do not use as a synonym for women. Lady may be used when it is a courtesy title or when a specific reference to fine manners is appropriate without patronizing overtones." [5]
• Association with the correct manners, and gendered rules: e.g. ladylike.

Female

Examples:

• Females in Information Technology and Telecommunications

Pros

• Age-inclusive
• Inclusive of people who don't feel practically feminine even though they identify as female.

Cons

• Often considered disrespectful or demeaning in modern usage. [4]
• Can be exclusive to trans women due to use by trans-excluding radical feminists to refer exclusively to cis women.

Girls

Examples:

• Black Girls Code (for girls)
• Go Girl, Go for IT (for girls)
• Girls' Programming Network (for girls)
• Girl Develop It
• Girl Geek Dinners
• Geek Girl Tech Conferences
• GeekGirlCon
• RailsGirls
• DjangoGirls

Pros:

• concise
• appropriate for groups intended for ages 5-18

Cons:

• Off-putting/infantilising to some women
• Used widely in sexualizing contexts, can lead to undesirable web search results
• professional women in male-dominated fields may have strong association between being called a girl and sexist (micro)aggression
• Can be confusing to actual intent of audience
• often paired with "men", making a mix of adult and child words. e.g. "you can choose from men's tshirts, or girl's tshirts". see also T-shirts

Grrls

Examples:

• LinuxChix's grrls-only mailing list.

Pros:

• Rad 90s RiotGrrl zine vibe

Cons:

• Similar to 'girls', can be off-putting to women
• Can be alienating
• suitability limited to contexts where a read rad 90s RiotGrrl zine vibe is relevant

Gals

Examples:

• Hacker Gals

Pros:

• Casual, fun

Cons:

• Similar to 'girls', can be off-putting to women
• Trivialising? Depends on purpose of the group

Chicks/Chix

Examples:

• LinuxChix
• WikiChix
• CodeChix
• DevChix
• DrupalChix (changed to Women in Drupal)

Pros:

• Fun, casual, and light-hearted. Playful.
• Fun and empowering to reclaim the word.
• Common in women's tech group names. Easily identifiable as a fun technical women's group.

Cons:

• Pretty 90s.
• "Chicks" is a trivialising and somewhat sexualized term for women. So using it has the pros/cons of reclamation.
• Can be embarrassing or accidentally offensive to say aloud because it sounds like saying "chicks," e.g. sounds like saying, "Are you going to the Linux Chicks meetup?"
• If referred to by a man verbally, it can cause accidental insult, e.g. "You're a Dev Chick, right?"

Dolls

Examples:

• Frag Dolls

Pros/Cons:

• Very informal
• Dolls are actually objects, not people.

Sisters

Examples:

• Systers
• CSters (a university group)

Pros:

• Not necessarily too casual
• Age-inclusive at both ends
• Not classist or dated
• Free of solid association to the trivializing, sexualizing, objectifying use of words like 'girls' or 'chicks'.

Cons:

• Suggests a level of closeness that may be offputting for a casual group.

Feminist

See also Explicitly feminist geek groups

Examples:

• Geek Feminism
• Feminist Frequency

Pros:

• explicitly claims a feminist space
• does not exclude feminists who aren't women

Cons:

• may be alienating to women who are not feminists
• does not work for a woman-only space

Divas

• Digital Divas (for girls)

Pros:

• fun and casual
• does not exclude non-cis women

Cons:

• may be alienating to women who do not identify as 'divas' and/or traditionally feminine
• may be alienating to women who want to be taken seriously
• may take the attention from the actual content to associations with the word 'diva' (melodrama, physical appearance, grand personas)
• negative term for self-centered, overly dramatic people.

Broads

Examples:

• Broad Universe

Pros:

• casual
• short
• lends itself to puns

Cons:

• outdated
• offensive term in certain spheres.

Identity references

Examples:

• Lesbians Who Tech

Pros:

• Explicitly includes women of that identity
• Can include other people if the group desires
• Can exclude women who are not of that identity in order to focus on the unique intersecting issues of being a woman with that identity in tech

Cons:

• Excludes women who are not of that identity (who are in other under-served populations), if only by implication
• Even if the group's rules include other people, the name may discourage people (in other under-served populations) who would be welcomed if they joined, from doing any further research on the group

Womyn

Seen in feminist literature and as a self-identification

Pros:

• Symbolically removes dependence on men/males

Cons:

• Not usually taken seriously
• May be taken as a claim of radical feminism
• Term is widely used by Trans-Exclusive Radical Feminists and is strongly associated with Transmisogynistic bigotry

Unicorns

From the unicorn law, ie, female geeks supposedly being as rare/mythical as a unicorn.

Examples:

• The Haecksen miniconf doesn't use it as a name, but has made considerable use of unicorn logos.

Pros:

• Lends itself well to visuals.
• Fun, different.
• Non-obvious connection to feminism.
• Unicorns/horses/ponies are somewhat feminine-coded: embracing feminine-coded symbols can be powerful

Cons:

• The term is not well known outside the geek feminism community, and therefore can confuse or alienate people.
• Not explicitly about women.
• Haecksen found that some men missed the irony and were encouraged to actually treat women like unicorns: ie, to photograph them and exclaim over a coveted "unicorn" sighting.
• You will sometimes be mistaken for a pop culture fan group (eg, for My Little Ponies)

Mother/Mom

Examples:

• Mothership HackerMoms

Pros/Cons:

• Only a good idea if explicitly for mothers and that is relevant to the group
• Terms for female parent vary widely even within english speaking cultures. Words like mum, mom, mama, noni, nan etc  are coded to narrow group who use that term.

She/Her (female pronouns)

Examples:

• BlogHer
• She's Geeky
• She Hacks

Pros:

• concise
• clear
• encompasses all who identify with the pronouns she/her
• about as little sexist/infantilising/classist/generational schemata as possible

Cons:

• use of the word 'her' can produce phrases that are objectifying on the grammatical level
• may produce names that sound more like phrases than names

Miss/Ms/Mrs (female titles)

Examples:

• MzTek
• Miss Baltazar's Laboratory

Pros:

• Short.

Cons:

• Can feel classist and dated.
• Can feel overly formal.
• Negative connotations if used to formulate a woman-specific version of a gender-neutral name.
• Has baggage from a history of women being required to declare their marital status publicly via their title, while men do not.

XX

Pros:

• Biology reference

Cons:

• Inherently chromosomal-essentialist: implies that all people with XX chromosomes are women, and that no one without XX chromosomes are women.

Abbreviation that uses one of the above terms

Examples:

• WoMoz, short for "Women & Mozilla"

Pro:

• If you can make a nice acronym it can work well

Con:

• Can be obscure

Name reference to a famous woman in the field

• Anita Borg Institute
• Grace Hopper Celebration
• Ada Initiative and AdaCamp
• Disreputable Order of Hopperites
• Edinburgh University Hoppers

Pros:

• Different.
• Works against erasure, dismissal, and ignorance of women's historical importance in the field.
• Suits familiar naming conventions for institutions and such.

Cons:

• May be too obscure if you choose a lesser-known name.
• May not be that different if you choose a well-known name.
• May be long.

Borrowing from other languages

Examples:

• Haecksen
• Foufem (based in a bilingual city)

Pros:

• Valid choice for events/groups held in languages other than English

Cons:

• Obscure for an English audience
• Potentially appropriative

No gender connotation at all

Examples:

• Seems to be popular with feminist hackerspaces - Double Union, Seattle Attic, Spanning Tree
• PyStar
• Code n Splode

Pros:

• Lots of flexibility
• Can avoid a connotation that your group intends to be the only women's group with your scope (as opposed to "ProjectName Women" or "CityName Feminist Hackerspace"

Cons:

• May need a nearly permanent subtitle
• Not obvious in a passing reference that women are the intended audience