Staying curious and allowing space to be proven wrong is key to understanding women’s needs — When Katee Hui, founder of Hackney Laces, a football community club for women and girls, asked the local council for support — she was told that women are not interested in football. The council had apparently tried to set up football sessions at Mabley Green, a pitch in East London…

Women’s exclusion experiences might be different depending on their contexts, but it’s possible they are stemming from the same root cause. — Recently, I got to chat with Sid Singh of Bolder Money, a money coaching platform in the US; and Halima Iqbal of Oraan, a women-first fintech platform in Pakistan within the same week. In several moments along the second conversation, it felt like déjà vu. …

Feeling safe is a fundamental human need, but is often overlooked—often affecting women more — If you’ve come to one of our Design for Women Workshops, you know that I spend a lot of that time talking about safety and safe spaces. “Safety is the #1 recurring topic in my research with gender practitioners,” I say. Feeling safe is a fundamental human need, and yet…

Designing under the guise of “gender-neutrality” while catering to the default male creates unintended consequences for women — With most of our world designed under the guise of “gender-neutrality” while catering to the default male, there are consequences for women that most of us can never even see coming. Even though I support my clients and communities by identifying these unintended consequences, I’ve been thinking about the extent…

What if everyone wore women-centric glasses? — Towards the end of last year on a call, a practitioner posed the following question: “What will it take to water the gender plant everyday?” I wrote this down in my notes immediately and thought about it a fair bit over the holidays. One of the tools I introduce during…

Are we doing enough to acknowledge the consequences of our design solutions? — Watching the docu-series LuLaRich which shows the downfall of MLM fashion brand LuLaRoe, made me very uneasy for many reasons. Multi-level marketing (MLM) companies are borderline pyramid schemes which use a non-salaried workforce to sell more stuff, by paying out commissions. Sometimes, they require the workforce to make a monetary…

How the business case for women harms them — One of the things I hear a lot is the business case of investing in women. “Women invest back into their families and communities,” folks in the financial inclusion community say. While men/their husbands waste away earnings getting drunk or gambling, the women run households on bootstrapped earnings often financed…

A starter-list of women-centric resources. — An ask we often hear in our community is this: do you have a list of resources where we can learn more? We’re excited to bring you a starter list of organisations, directories, books, and newsletters that we think stand out in the women’s space. 〰️ORGANISATIONS〰️ YLabs YLabs is a women-led nonprofit…

How the practicality of women’s invention hurts them. — At some point along my Unconform journey, I was curious to learn more about women’s focused funding. I went clicking into several VC websites that focus on women. I also went clicking into some of the biggest VC funds that didn’t focus on any one identity. …