This year’s Pride Month has been filled with festivities all around the globe in honour of LGBTQ experiences and voices. However, the celebration and inclusion of LGBTQ+ people should not be a once-a-year affair, especially in the workplace. So how do we ensure that we are showing support beyond Pride Month?

We caught up with community member Emma Arcos (they/them), an HR Consultant based in Washington DC, to get their perspectives on this. Emma’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) training, ‘Breaking the Binary: Gender-Inclusive English at Work,’ teaches organisational leaders to practice using nonbinary pronouns and other forms of gender-inclusive language in a safe space for asking questions about LGBTQ+ issues at work.

1. What does Pride Month mean to you (as an individual and an HR professional), and why is it important to observe it?

I was born and raised in New York City, home of the Stonewall Inn, where our queer and trans mothers responded to police violence in 1969 by birthing the modern pride movement that we celebrate today in the US. As an individual, Pride Month is a month of reflection for me. I observe the celebration by honouring the civil rights movements in the past, present, and future that make our society a safe place for the marginalized among us. Who came before me and fought for my rights without even knowing me? Wherever I am, do I cultivate my community? How can I be a good ancestor? Pride Month also puts me in the spotlight as a queer HR professional. My role in organisations is to champion people of all backgrounds and develop a sustainable work culture. Pride Month is a good time to focus on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) for LGBTQ+ stakeholders. For the reasons I listed above, it is important to observe Pride Month and continue the DEI learning year-round.

2. What everyday practices should organisations adopt to support the LGBTQ+ community?

Here are some suggestions for supporting LGBTQ+ community members in your organisation. Even before the point of hire, you can get to work promoting the values of your employer brand. When recruiting, consider asking questions about lessons learned from intercultural communication at work and really listen to the answer. Ask the candidate to define what diversity, equity, and inclusion mean to them. Every single new hire should raise the bar for the whole team, and making sure that your culture continues to grow is key to your organisation’s success. It is illegal in many jurisdictions to discriminate against protected classes such as gender, ability, and race. In some countries, it is also a human rights violation to repeatedly misgender (=use the wrong pronouns to refer to someone) an employee, so don’t wait until you hire your first nonbinary employee to begin doing this DEI work! Lay the groundwork for greater LGBTQ+ inclusion at work by hiring an HR consultant such as myself.

3. How can we get people to be more open-minded about LGBTQ+ people regardless of their cultural and/or religious views?

The culture and religion I was raised in did not affirm LGBTQ+ people. Part of my growth journey has been learning about the rich lineage of global civil rights champions that I am a part of. Stepping into that power has helped me figure out how I re-engage with the cultures and religious beliefs in my life. Remembering that I model self-love as a member of the LGBTQ+ community has helped me stay grounded and keep myself safe when engaging with people in my life who use their cultural or religious beliefs to denigrate my existence or prescribe a monolithic way of being in lieu of celebrating a pluralistic society.

4. For the allies, how can they authentically support the LGBTQ+ community?

If you are an ally reading this blog post, you can authentically support the LGBTQ+ community by listening and learning about the local, regional, and national political issues that curtail or expand access to services in the public and private spheres. Create community and remember that solidarity is stronger than allyship. Like a mycelium network, which communicates and shares collective resources, commit to caring for one another. One of the ways you can start is by requesting my DEI training, ‘Breaking the Binary: Gender-Inclusive English at Work’, a 90-minute workshop that gives you a safe space to ask questions about LGBTQ+ issues and practice using they/them pronouns and other gender-inclusive languages.

5. In your opinion, what critical data about the LGBTQ+ community is missing in public discourse?

Visibility is a double-edged sword for queer and trans people. Sometimes it leads to advancement in human rights, and sometimes it leads to greater targeted violence. So I think that data collection and storytelling are important, but not nearly as important as exploring the ethics behind doing so. My understanding of the critical data that is missing from public discourse is limited to my scope and experience. From my view as a citizen of the US and EU, I would like to see more nonbinary inclusion. Taking a non-binary approach can help with eliminating gendered approaches to data collection in public discourse. This creates a larger and more accurate picture of all the ways men, women, and gender non-conforming (GNC) individuals move through their lives. So, I’d encourage readers of this blog to wonder about who and what is missing from the public discourse from their perspectives.

6. How can we bridge the information gap to ensure better legislation around LGBTQ+ rights?

Bridging the information gap looks like figuring out who and what is missing from legislation around LGBTQ+ rights. For example, I’d like to see fewer material barriers for anyone to access free public services and participate in civil society; LGBTQ+ folks who are targeted for community organizing face greater danger when incarcerated and suffer consequences exacerbated by a lack of legislative protections. So, to solve that, let’s agree that investment in social and human rights will lead to much greater participation in democracy. Groups such as Open Heroines are essential to this mission to expand open governance all over the world. Open governance looks like protected LGBTQ+ participation in all levels of government and civil society, which ultimately will secure better legislation around LGBTQ+ rights.

To learn more about Emma’s DEI Training, visit their website or email them at abundancehrconsultancy@gmail.com. They eventfully hosted this workshop for the Open Heroines community in May 2023.

Emma has also created a HR Handbook which you can go through here.

Additional Reading

• The History of Pride

Post-Pride: Supporting LGBTQ+ Employees Year-Round was originally published in Open Heroines on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The aim of the course is for Open Heroines to achieve a more rounded understanding of feminism and feminist approaches to knowledge-making, particularly in relation to data.

The course will be delivered by Helena Suárez Val who is an activist, researcher, and producer focused on digital communications, data, human rights, and feminism. She is also a member of Open Heroines.

Background

The production of data has been crucial in highlighting and combating issues that affect women in all their diversity, such as violence against women and femicide, limits to sexual rights, reproductive rights and abortion, racism and discrimination, unequal political participation, labour inequality and care responsibilities, environment and climate crisis, etc.

From a feminist perspective, it is an oxymoron to talk about “raw data”, since data is “always cooked”. But, what is a feminist perspective?

Feminism is a (plural, diverse, and, sometimes, conflicted) social movement, practice, and theory. As a movement, it encompasses a myriad of actors — activists, groups, civil society organisations, political campaigns — who denounce, challenge, and work to dismantle gendered power structures that, intersecting with other oppressions such as race and class, maintain inequalities and privilege men over women and gender dissidents. As a practice, ‘’feminism must be lived’’, according to Sara Ahmed, which implies ‘’being attentive to power relations at home and at work, being willing to challenge abuses of power, being willing to support those who are challenging abuses of power.” As a theory, feminism is a radically interdisciplinary project; a critical outlook, an interpretive attitude, and a knowledge-making proposal that attends to power to question disciplinary practices, suppositions, and objects of study.

What does this understanding of feminism(s) mean for working with data? How can Open Heroines “cook” data with feminist recipes? This course will introduce us to some of the main issues, concerns, and questions in relation to feminism and data.

Structure of The Course

Session 1: Feminism(s)

In the first session, we will focus on approaching feminism through the following questions:

• What are the subjects of feminism(s)?
• What are some of the key issues for feminism?
• How does feminism challenge knowledge-making practices?
• What does a feminist analysis of power (with data) look like?

In this session, students will learn about the plurality of feminism(s), as well as definitions of key concepts, such as gender, intersectionality, and the feminist critiques of objectivity.

This session will be held on Friday, April 28, 2023, at 1pm UTC.

Session 2: Feminism and data

In the second session, we will focus more specifically on feminism and data, tackling the following questions:

• What is data?
• How can we apply a feminist perspective in data production, analysis, and communication?

Students will be introduced to the principles of ‘data feminism’ (D’Ignazio & Klein, 2020), particularly contextual and intersectional analysis, through the example of feminicide data.

This session will be held on Friday, May 12, 2023, at 1pm UTC.

Learning Outcomes

By completing this training, students will learn about key concepts and issues in feminist thinking and practice, including gender and intersectionality, and will be able to apply a feminist perspective to the work of collecting, processing, and analysing data.

Each session will last 1.5 hours and will include learning material, a presentation and an opportunity for interaction.

Kindly register for the workshop here.

About Helena Suárez Val

Helena Suárez Val is an activist, researcher, and producer focused on digital communications, data, human rights, and feminism. She has worked as a web developer and communications specialist in London, Johannesburg, and Montevideo, for organisations such as Amnesty International’s International Secretariat, the Global Call to Action against Poverty, and Cotidiano Mujer.

She holds MAs in Gender, Media and Culture (Goldsmiths, University of London) and Social Science Research (University of Warwick) and is currently a doctoral candidate at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies, University of Warwick. With Catherine D’Ignazio and Silvana Fumega, she co-leads Data Against Feminicide, an action-research project that aims to understand and support the work of the feminicide data community of practice. In 2022, she led a three-month course entitled Data Against Feminicide: Theory and Practice (with Catherine D’Ignazio) and a session on feminicide, data, and activism, as part of a course on measurement of gender-related violence against women and feminicide organised by CLACSO and ECLAC. She has been recording and caring for feminicide data for Uruguay since 2015, at feminicidiouruguay.net.

Upcoming Workshop: How can Open Heroines “Cook Data” with Feminist Recipes? was originally published in Open Heroines on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Por Jésica Edith Tapia Reyes

La perspectiva de género es una herramienta indispensable para modificar los mecanismos que perpetúan la desigualdad y sus manifestaciones en la vida cotidiana de las mujeres. Su inclusión en las políticas de acceso a la información es particularmente relevante, dadas las barreras que enfrentan las mujeres para el ejercicio pleno de este derecho, así como por los efectos del acceso a la información pública en otros derechos fundamentales, su empoderamiento y agencia política.

¿Qué es la perspectiva de género?

Naciones Unidas definió a la perspectiva de género como una “estrategia que busca que las preocupaciones y experiencias de las mujeres, y de los hombres, sean un elemento integrante de la elaboración, aplicación, supervisión y evaluación de las políticas y los programas en todas las esferas políticas, económicas y sociales, a fin de que se beneficien por igual y se impida que se perpetúe la desigualdad”. En México, esta estrategia está incorporada en el artículo 5 de la Ley General para la Igualdad entre Mujeres y Hombres. La transversalidad de esta normativa permite “valorar las implicaciones” que tienen, para las mujeres y los hombres, cualquier acción que se programe (legislación, políticas públicas, actividades administrativas, económicas y culturales) en las instituciones públicas y privadas. El objetivo de su aplicación es alcanzar la igualdad sustantiva: acceso al mismo trato y oportunidades para el reconocimiento, goce, o ejercicio de los derechos humanos y las libertades fundamentales.

¿Cómo se incorporan las experiencias diferenciadas entre hombres y mujeres en el derecho de acceso a la información (DAI)?

Para hacer una evaluación de la incorporación de la perspectiva de género en el DAI a nivel federal en México, utilizo los ejes propuestos por La Red de Transparencia y Acceso a la Información (RTA), en el Modelo de Transparencia y Género. Estos ejes buscan “mejorar el conocimiento sobre la condición de las mujeres latinoamericanas en el ejercicio del derecho de acceso a la información y crear un modelo metodológico para incorporar la perspectiva de género en las políticas de transparencia.”

1.-Normativa que respalde el mandato y cree la institucionalidad básica del sistema.

El eje 1 “supone la inclusión de lineamientos para incorporar el enfoque de género en los diferentes elementos de cada normativa nacional, así como en la Ley Modelo de Acceso a la Información 2.0 de la OEA”.

Analizando la normativa del derecho de acceso a la información en México, desde la publicación de la primera Ley en la materia (2002), hasta la fecha actual, no se identifica de forma explícita la inclusión de la perspectiva de género, ni como parte de los principios que fundamentan el ejercicio del derecho de acceso a la información, ni en las tareas de los órganos garantes (ni federal ni locales). En este lapso de 20 años se han promovido desde el legislativo únicamente dos iniciativas (desde el Senado en 2017 y en Cámara de Diputados en 2021) que buscaban la incorporación de la perspectiva de género a esta normativa. Sin embargo, ninguna de estas iniciativas logró concretar su objetivo.

2. Institucionalidad sobre la que descansa el sistema

Busca la incorporación de la perspectiva de género en el entramado institucional, en los propios órganos garantes o en los Sujetos Obligados (es decir las agencias públicas que tienen que proveer la información) y en el resto de instituciones y cuerpos institucionales creados en el sistema de acceso a la información.

En este tema se identifican dos actores institucionales dedicados al tema de género:

a) La Dirección de Derechos Humanos, Igualdad y Género (Acuerdo ACT-PUB/24–06- 2015.04) cuyo propósito es “impulsar el desempeño organizacional y promover un modelo institucional de servicio público orientado a resultados con un enfoque de derechos humanos y perspectiva de género”

b) Comisión de Derechos Humanos, Equidad de Género e Inclusión Social del Sistema Nacional de Transparencia que busca:“promover acciones que fomenten el ejercicio del derecho de acceso a la información y la protección de datos personales, con una perspectiva incluyente”.

3. Funcionamiento del sistema y políticas de aplicación.

Tiene como objetivo la incorporación del enfoque de género en el proceso de la solicitud de información pública, incluyendo las respuestas otorgadas por los Sujetos Obligados y los procesos de inconformidad. Sobre este tema lo realizado por el Instituto Nacional de Acceso a la Información (INAI), es apenas incipiente: el INAI reporta la capacitación en perspectiva de género de los funcionarios del centro de atención y de funcionarios de las Unidades de Transparencia de los Sujetos Obligados. En enero de 2022, el INAI incorporó una línea de acción al Programa Nacional para la Igualdad entre Mujeres y Hombres 2020–2024, para “promover la transparencia en la publicación de sentencias de los poderes judiciales relativas al derecho de las mujeres a una vida libre de violencia”.

Aunque estas acciones favorecen el acceso a la información con perspectiva de género, no abarcan la magnitud de lo que se busca por el Modelo de Transparencia y Género de la RTA. Son acciones unilaterales y genéricas, no parten de un proceso deliberativo entre el órgano garante, las usuarias del sistema y la sociedad civil, en el que se identifiquen, las barreras que enfrentan las usuarias, los temas que les son más importantes o más difíciles de obtener, la calidad de sus experiencias con los distintos Sujetos Obligados y en general su experiencia al ejercer su derecho de acceso a la información.

4. Instrumentos de seguimiento y evaluación del desempeño del sistema. Incorporación de la perspectiva de género en a) diagnósticos, investigaciones, sondeos sobre uso, percepción y satisfacción de usuarios/as; b) publicidad sobre el DAIP; c) desagregando por sexo la información; y d) utilizando lenguaje inclusivo.

El INAI y el Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía (INEGI), realizan dos ejercicios estadísticos sobre el acceso a la información en México, la Encuesta Nacional de Acceso a la Información Pública y Protección de Datos Personales (ENAID), y el Censo Nacional de Transparencia, Acceso a la Información Pública y Protección de Datos Personales Federal.

La ENAID muestra información relevante para entender las percepciones y conocimientos de la población, pero la batería de preguntas no considera la perspectiva de género, no se incluyen preguntas dirigidas a capturar las experiencias específicas de las mujeres en el ejercicio del DAI. El CNTAIPPDPF orientado a generar información sobre la gestión y desempeño del INAI, únicamente muestra información sobre la representación de género en los órganos colegiados de los órganos garantes, no se incluyen datos desagregados que nos permitan identificar cómo se ve el desempeño y gestión de estos órganos desde la perspectiva de las usuarias.

En cuanto a los datos que publica el INAI sobre el perfil de los usuarios del sistema de acceso a la información, las cifras recopiladas de sus informes de actividades entre 2003 y 2020, muestran de forma sostenida la existencia de una brecha de género en el ejercicio del derecho al acceso a la información.

Gráfico 1

La brecha prácticamente se ha mantenido con la misma magnitud desde la creación del INAI, sin que a la fecha exista un análisis para entender los determinantes de su existencia. Tampoco hemos encontrado políticas públicas tendientes a reducirla/eliminarla

Eje 5. Sistemas de información orgánica y de consulta externa: inclusión del enfoque de género en los sistemas de información, tanto en el funcionamiento interno como en su consulta y percepción externa.

Finalmente, en cuanto al Eje 5, no se encontraron actividades específicamente ejecutadas para incluir el enfoque de género en los sistemas de información.

¿Cómo se podría profundizar en la identificación de las preocupaciones y experiencias de las mujeres en el ejercicio del DAI con los datos que tenemos?

El análisis de los Ejes establecidos por la RTA revela que actividades del INAI para la incorporación de la perspectiva de género en el derecho de acceso a la información pública son positivas pero no del alcance que se requiere para incorporar a cabalidad las experiencias diferenciadas de las mujeres en el ejercicio del DAI. México es sin duda pionero en el tema, sin embargo, es necesario decir que aún estamos lejos de nuestra meta. Las acciones realizadas, surgen de una evaluación institucional unilateral del tema, no hay indicios de un diálogo abierto, con información pública y datos que nos permitan identificar las problemáticas en el desempeño del ejercicio cotidiano del derecho de acceso a la información de las mujeres.

En 20 años de política de transparencia no contamos con datos públicos que nos permitan evaluar las experiencias y conocer las preocupaciones de las usuarias, no sabemos qué características tienen las mujeres que sí han podido acceder al ejercicio de su derecho, más grave aún, no tenemos pistas sobre quién no estaría accediendo. Tampoco sabemos qué temas son relevantes para las mujeres y por tanto, no podemos identificar si su voz está siendo escuchada en los procesos de política pública.

Como una propuesta a partir de la información con la que contamos, utilizando los datos del proyecto Big Data y Acceso a la información y el texto de las solicitudes recibidas por Sujetos Obligados del Sistema Nacional de Prevención, Atención, Sanción y Erradicación de la Violencia contra las Mujeres, (SNPASEVM) y de la Comisión Nacional para Prevenir y Erradicar la Violencia Contra las Mujeres establecido en la Ley General de Acceso de las Mujeres a una Vida Libre de Violencia, hago una breve exploración del derecho de acceso a la información de las mujeres en México. Esta propuesta es poco común y seguramente imperfecta ( aquí se encuentra la metodología del análisis y visualizaciones), sin embargo, constituye un acercamiento para generar información que nos ayude a describir la experiencia de las mujeres y sus preocupaciones al ejercer el DAI.

Los Sujetos Obligados considerados en el análisis suman 299,710 solicitudes (dato entre 2003–2019), los incluí considerando que son instituciones que tienen un mandato de Ley que les concede atribuciones legales y recursos para la implementación de políticas públicas que afectan directamente a las mujeres como grupo social.

Cuadro 1 Sujetos Obligados del SNPASEVM considerados en el análisis.

Fuente:Elaboración propia con información de la Ley General de Acceso de las Mujeres a una Vida Libre de Violencia.

Algunos hallazgos:

1. El SNPASEVM recibe pocas solicitudes: En el período analizado las solicitudes del SNPASEVM representa el 17% de la totalidad de solicitudes recibidas entre 2003 y 2019 Este hallazgo es relevante, ya que es congruente con los reportes del propio INAI, que revelan un menor uso del sistema de acceso a la información por parte de las mujeres.
2. El índice de Expertise de los solicitantes del SNPASEVM, es en general bajo, particularmente para INMUJERES y SEDESOL/Secretaría del Bienestar. El índice de expertise del Proyecto Big Data y acceso a la información en México busca caracterizar al solicitante de información. Una solicitud con un índice de expertise alto, está asociada a solicitantes con altos niveles de recursos, formación, experiencia y/o conocimiento interno del funcionamiento de los organismos gubernamentales”,(Ver Berliner et al,2022,p12), así como a la obtención de una mejor respuesta (menor número de días para obtener la información y menos probabilidad de obtener Inexistencias).

El promedio del índice de expertisse para todas las solicitudes del sistema va de -.06 en 2003 a +.01 en 2019, siendo el 2013 con un promedio de +.04 el punto más alto de este indicador.

De las dependencias del SNPASEVM se destaca el índice de expertise del Instituto Nacional de las Mujeres, que es más bajo que el del resto de las dependencias analizadas (-.08 en 2003 con -.015 como máximo). Igualmente llaman la atención los bajos niveles de expertise que presentan las solicitudes dirigidas a la Secretaría de Desarrollo Social/de Bienestar(-.06 en 2003 y como máximo -.02 en 2018).

3) Las temáticas de las solicitudes de acceso a la Información dirigidas SNPASEVM se concentran en la distribución de recursos y temas de seguridad

Berliner, et al (2018) establecen 20 categorías para las solicitudes de acceso a la información. Para el conjunto de todas las dependencias la categoría con mayor cantidad de solicitudes es Información Comercial (9.95 % del total), seguida de Tierra y Medio Ambiente y Necesidades Individuales (8.34 y 7.51 % respectivamente). Para las dependencias del SNPASEVM , observamos que las temáticas más solicitadas son “Programas Distributivos”, “Presupuestos y Gastos” y “Milicia, Policía y Crimen”.

Al aplicar el algoritmo de aprendizaje no supervisado (LDA) a las solicitudes de INMUJERES identifiqué las siguientes tendencias:

1. De los temas latentes encontrados por el algoritmo, el más relevante está relacionado con palabras como violencia, apoyo, atención, víctima, discriminación, igualdad, indígena.
2. La palabra violencia está presente en la mayoría de las solicitudes. Las palabras, víctima, discriminación e indígena, están presentes en casi todos los textos que componen esta temática y no se repiten en otras temáticas detectadas por el algoritmo. Desde una perspectiva de género aplicada a la transparencia, el análisis de las temáticas habla de una demanda de información hacia un tema presente en la vida de las solicitantes. En este caso, es interesante contrastar lo reportado por el INAI en el Plan de acción para incorporar la perspectiva de género en las políticas de transparencia y acceso a la información pública en México , documento en el que reporta como las “principales temáticas de las solicitudes de información presentadas por mujeres, de 2003 a febrero de 2019 : acceso a documentos oficiales específicos (29.95%), tarjetón, recibo de nómina o comprobante de pago (11.79%) y sistema nacional de salud pública y abasto de medicamentos (9.95%).”

Al comparar los resultados del análisis de los textos de las solicitudes de dependencias con a la agenda de género, podemos identificar que los temas más importantes cambian y dan mayor énfasis a temas de violencia, milicia, crimen, etc. y hacia las categorías de recursos y programas distributivos.

Aunque el INAI es pionero en la región al implementar una serie de acciones tendientes a incluir la perspectiva de género en el DAI, estas acciones no alcanzan para establecer un espacio deliberativo en el que, con datos públicos, podamos entender las experiencias y preocupaciones de las usuarias al ejercer el DAI y establecer con ello una ruta crítica para mejorar lo alcanzado hasta ahora por el INAI. Las solicitudes de acceso a la información constituyen por sí mismas una valiosa fuente de información acerca de las necesidades e intereses de las mujeres mexicanas sobre lo público y pueden complementar y potenciar los datos sobre el ejercicio del DAI por parte de las mujeres mexicanas, es necesario que el INAI refuerce las acciones y sobre todo los datos disponibles con perspectiva de género para desactivar los mecanismos de desigualdad y materializar los beneficios del DAI para todas las mujeres mexicanas por igual.

Este artículo es parte de la serie de becas de escritura de Open Heroines, destinadas a alzar las voces de las mujeres y las personas no binarias en los espacios cívicos abiertos.

Jésica Edith Tapia Reyes tiene más de 15 años de experiencia en el análisis y evaluación de políticas públicas. Su práctica profesional está enfocada en Data Science y su aplicación a problemas sociales y análisis de políticas públicas desde una perspectiva feminista. Su Twitter es, @Jesik_Tapia.

Perspectiva de Género y Derecho de Acceso a la Información en México: Explorando las Experiencias… was originally published in Open Heroines on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

When we started Open Heroines (OH) in 2016, I was 30, junior to mid-career level, and needed a space to talk to others about the struggles of women and non-binary people in an eco-system that, while is very progressive about social change, struggled (and still struggle) with power dynamics and bias. We spoke and are still speaking of injustices of sexual conduct, voices (or lack) of women and commitments to feminism.

But if something stuck and grew with me in this journey of Open Heroines, it’s the talk about money. No matter how hard we will try to avoid it, money is power, and if we are having a feminist space, we need to talk about money. Now, when I am 36, with a family and a freelancer, I am appreciative of the OH space for helping me grow and learn about money. Here are some of the lessons I learned in the past 7 years.

Lesson 1 — Talk about money

When I worked at the Open Knowledge Foundation (that since then had changed a lot), I knew I was underpaid. I started as a freelancer on a low salary for someone who has graduated from grad school, and then put on a contract that rolled me over to the same rate (BIG mistake, see lesson 3 for why!).

Money was not the main factor in my decision to work there (even though I was deep in student debt). I wanted a place where I could learn, had travel opportunities, and total flexibility of working from home. However, as time passed, my job description changed as well and I gained more responsibilities. My pay stayed the same. I started to feel unappreciated.

At the time, OKF was in the process of developing pay bands for different roles, and I noticed that I was in the middle of the band. When I spoke to a colleague with a similar role, responsibilities and time in the organisation, he told me he earned 30% more than I did. So I decided to confront it with my line manager, who was back then the CEO. His answer — “You are not as technical as he is (even though I have worked a product manager role that was technical), and it’s not the same. Besides, you are not supposed to speak about your salaries.”

This sentence, “Do not speak to your colleagues about your salary, it’s private information,” is a neo-liberal technique to stop us from understanding our financial situation and keep us oppressed by employers. If you want to share your salary, you can, it’s your right, and I actually encourage others to do it too.

Needless to say, that started my quest for a different job, in an organisation that still does good in the world, but is open about its compensation policy. I found it, and during my work there, discussion about salaries was not a secret, it was the norm and encouraged. You can find a place like this too.

Lesson 2 — Pension? What is it?

In the UK, where I live now, enrollment into private pension schemes at work started only a decade ago, but in my home country of Israel, it started in the 90s. Still, as a 20-year-old, I didn’t even think about pension. It looked so far away. If you are in your 20s and read these lines now, learn from my mistakes. Start to put money into your pension sooner.

So when I got my pension scheme at 30, I thought how wonderful it is that I will be set for life in retirement. I could not be more wrong. I learned this the hard way the year I went on maternity leave — my salary shrunk and so was my pension contribution that year. I was now part of the pension gender gap.

If you are not familiar with it, the pension gender gap refers to the fact that women save less money than men towards retirement, even though women have a longer life expectancy than men. This is due to a number of factors, like the fact that women work part-time due to childcare or even divorce proceedings.

What you can do about it? Ask your work to save a bigger proportion of your salary to your pension (if you can afford to lose that income now, but even 1% more makes a lot of difference) and educate yourself about pensions. My partner and I agreed, for example, that he can help and contribute to my pension while I am on maternity leave to equalize the gap between us, but I know that with the cost of living crisis, this is not affordable for many women.

The bottom line though — pensions are not as boring as you think. Equip yourselves with knowledge today.

Lesson 3 — ‘Freelancer’ doesn’t mean cheaper work

In the past year, I became a full-time consultant. Scary and exciting at the same time. However, when coming to setting up a rate, I was a bit surprised at how to do so. Lucky for me, we did a Freelance Skillshare in Open Heroines before which helped me set a day rate when speaking with clients.

I learned that it’s important to say no to some offers, especially if they are lower than what you get paid if you were employed full-time. I account for costs like insurance, leave days, pension and taxes. I am always honest about why and how I decided on a day rate, and I always bill on the amount of hours I actually do.

It is scary to say no to opportunities, especially when you don’t know when your next work will come, but after doing it a couple of times, I feel better having clients that understand my value of work, than working with people who don’t and take advantage of it. Got more freelance questions or tips? Ask us in the freelance-skillshare channel on Slack.

Lesson 4 — The line between volunteering and paid participation

As I said in the beginning, when I started Open Heroines I was young with no kids or commitments and was employed. I was also lucky that the organisations I worked at gave me the opportunity to work on Open Heroines during work hours. When community members asked why we didn’t pay members, or myself, I dismissed paying myself. I have started this, so I need to put time into it. I don’t need the pay, it’s important that others will get that money. I can do this without getting paid.

7 years later, I have a toddler, a baby on the way and no employer, in addition to care work for various family dramas. Finding time for doing Open Heroines work becomes tough, if not impossible. Problem is, we have plans and ambitions we want to work on, and a commitment to the Hewlett Foundation (our wonderful funder), to deliver. So I still do days of work for OH a year, and not as many as I would like to actually deliver something out.

So for the first time in 7 years, I am getting paid for some of my OH work. To practice what I preach, here are the full details — $9600 for $75 an hour, so 128 hours. I, of course, won’t bill if I don’t reach the hours limit. I hope that with a bit more dedicated time, I can help our amazing staff build better tools for the community.

Lesson 5 — Ask questions

My last lesson is to put the ego aside and start asking questions and researching. Unfortunately, finances and money are not something we learn in school like math or English. Maybe people want us not to have the knowledge to make a change. So don’t be shy, ask questions, and empower yourself with knowledge. You can start here.

Let’s Talk Money! was originally published in Open Heroines on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

By Lalita Pulavarti

Nearly 5.8 million people in India die from Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) every year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). While there is a long list of NCDs, the most prominent ones with high mortality and prevalence rates are Cardiovascular Diseases, Chronic Respiratory Diseases, Diabetes Mellitus and Cancer.

Together, NCDs account for over 60% of all deaths per year. India’s share of the world’s NCD mortality burden is about 15%. WHO estimates that every year, there are 41 million NCD-related deaths globally. The NCD Alliance estimates that about 18 million of these deaths are of women. Of these, the Alliance notes, the biggest killer is Cardiovascular disease, with 8.6 million women succumbing worldwide annually. Women in Low and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs), already facing disparities in health access and outcomes, suffer disproportionately from the burden of NCDs.

Given this volume of annual NCD deaths, India was the first country to draw up a national plan under WHO’s Global Action Plan for the prevention and control of NCDs. The plan emphasizes prevention and a 25% reduction in mortality by 2025. Incidentally, the Sustainable Development Goals also aim at a one-third reduction in NCD mortality by 2030 (Goal 3.4).

While the mortality numbers and goals/targets to reduce them are telling, it is worthwhile to dig deeper into the national and sub-national prevalence and mortality data, as well as into other significant indicators that describe and measure the burden of NCDs. For example, while the number of years lost (YLLs — Years of Life Lost) is an indicator to describe premature death due to disease, Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) also take into account loss of well-being and productivity due to the disease-induced disability. Even if YLLs show a decline, DALYs can be an indicator of the social and economic cost of suffering from chronic NCDs. DALYs are higher if the chronic illnesses set in earlier, as seen in the case of Diabetes Mellitus in India.

Data for all these measures can come from a variety of sources. National disease surveillance programs, and periodic population & household-based health surveys are some of the means of collecting data on disease prevalence and outcomes. As an example of data available on NCDs, the rest of this article will focus on two main NCDs in India — Cardiovascular diseases and Diabetes Mellitus. The discussion will also demonstrate the need for high-quality health-related Open Data and discover the areas where such data is available and where it is not.

Prevalence, Mortality and DALYs

The following visuals show the prevalence and mortality numbers for Diabetes and Cardiovascular diseases (with additional links to interactive visualizations where readers can hover over the maps for state-level numbers and the bars for male/female numbers). Note that the two data components in the visual are from different data sources: the prevalence data by state (in the maps) is from the National Family and Household Survey (NFHS 2020, also known as NFHS-5). Researchers are able to use government data readily because other researchers like @Pratapvardhan on Github — an open data portal — clean up the data and arrange it in downloadable files on Github and other such open source platforms. Otherwise, we are left with reports put out by the government agencies in pdf files that need to be machine-read and extracted into a database. One page at a time. The gender numbers for prevalence per 100,000 population are from the Global Burden of Disease Datasets (2019).

*Click here for the interactive visualization of Diabetes prevalence in India.

Across India, 25% of women and 27% of men reported suffering from diabetes. There are significant regional variations, with the southern states showing higher prevalence for both men and women. On the bars below the maps, we can see near similar prevalence for both men and women across the top ten states. Some regions vary. In Punjab, for example, we see a higher prevalence per 100,000 women than for men.

If the government’s target (set in 2010) of a 25% reduction in mortality by 2025 is to be met, how many fewer deaths would we need to see? Across the country, the year 2010 saw 203,158 deaths due to diabetes. A 25% reduction would mean approximately fifty thousand fewer deaths in 2025. However, deaths have in fact increased over the years since 2010, with 272,281 deaths reported in 2019. In effect then, by 2025, the country would have to reduce mortality by nearly a hundred thousand deaths. It seems like a tall order indeed.

The country would have to see about 58,000 fewer deaths per year due to diabetes alone. When we add up deaths due to each NCD that have to be prevented to meet the target, the challenge gets steeper. In addition to lowering mortality, DALYs also indicate the need for sustained care over the lifetime of the patient to ensure that the adverse impact of the disease is mitigated (thus reducing DALYs). With improved diagnosis and treatment over the years, DALYs should see a downward trend. An upward trend would imply inaccessible or un-accessed testing and treatment.

The next set of maps shows the prevalence of cardiovascular diseases. Since NFHS 2020 did not have a question on cardiovascular diseases in particular, only the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) dataset is used to report prevalence per 100,000 population.

*Click here for the interactive visualization of Cardiovascular prevalence in India

There is significant state-level variation in DALYs per 100,00 population. A couple of states like Punjab and Tamil Nadu show a higher number of DALYs, with a nearly 2000 point difference upward from the median value of approximately 4000 DALYs per 100,000 population. In particular, women’s DALYs have been increasing in states like Punjab, and men’s DALYs have shown modest decreases. This is important to note because, if Disability Adjusted Life Years are increasing, women are not seeking or receiving optimum care for cardiovascular diseases and the disease burden for women is increasing in some states.

There were 2.3 million deaths in 2015 due to cardiovascular diseases. In 2019, the number of deaths increased to 2.57 million. If the Government of India’s 25% reduction by 2025 is to be achieved, we need to see a reduction of more than half a million deaths compared to the 2015 numbers (the number of deaths will have to be 1.71 million or fewer to achieve the target).

Why is this data important?

Both sets of indicators have demonstrated the importance of robust, high-quality data across years (and decades!) so that disease prevalence and mortality are tracked and, health policy and implementation focus on prevention and reduction of mortality. However, taking it one step forward, the data can also be analysed along important indicators like gender (just one example here). Both disease patterns have shown that prevalence and mortality for women are almost at par with men. In fact, mortality from diabetes for women is marginally higher than for men.

If India were to meet the targets of mortality reduction as well as Sustainable Development Goals by 2025 and 2030 respectively, ideally, the reduction needs to happen across all categories including gender. The key question to be asked at this stage, therefore, is: are men and women equally seeking care for their chronic health conditions? Other socio-economic categories such as social group, income levels, religion and the intersection of all of these are equally important but will not be discussed here.

Gender as a Key Differentiator

A study conducted by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (New Delhi) examined more than 2 million outpatient records and the hospital’s patient management system covering patients from four states in 2016. The study concluded that only 37% of the patients were women and the proportions did not match the population ratios, nor the prevalence data on chronic illnesses. They estimated that approximately 400,000 women patients were missing (i.e. did not seek care) from their hospital in 2016. Researchers involved in the study observed that the greatest disparity in seeking tertiary care was seen in cardiology.

Optimum care for these chronic illnesses requires continuous resources and access. Narasamma’s experience with both diabetes and cardiovascular disease gives us a glimpse into the challenges. In her younger days, 69-year-old Narasamma used to work as a domestic help in the city of Bangalore. After her children grew up, she and her husband moved back to their village, about 70 km from Bangalore.

In 2011, Narasamma sought out medical help at a private hospital in Bangalore when she started experiencing weakness and various aches and pains. She was diagnosed with diabetes and cardiovascular disease and had to undergo surgery for heart disease. Medicine required for her chronic ailments is not available in the village where she lives, or even in the government hospital in a nearby town. So Narasamma travels every month to Bangalore to buy the medicine she needs.

As recently as 2019, the Government of India reported that more than 80% of the population in India is not covered by any type of insurance (it is reportedly changing now with some government schemes like Ayushman Bharat - enrolling larger numbers into the government health scheme). The utilization of such new schemes for NCD care remains to be studied. One such preliminary study (Working Paper 014) by the National Health Authority assessed claims for cardiac care between 2019 and 2020 under the government’s health insurance scheme and found that only 30% of those who accessed care for cardiac conditions were women.

Luckily for Narasamma, she was able to tap into government insurance funds for her heart surgery, though her family had to pay about 80,000 rupees (about 1,400 US dollars at 2011 exchange rates) due to the complexity of the surgery. Without the insurance, the family would have had to shell out 6,400 US dollars. However, for the medicine that she needs every day, she has to purchase them in the city. This is in addition to the insulin and other medicine she has to buy for diabetes.

Both studies concluded that regardless of cost or insurance status, barriers to access for women were many. Women’s access to care has to be improved if a reduction in mortality is to be achieved. Removing such barriers to access is not easy — women’s participation in the formal labour force is at its lowest at 17%, which translates to a lack of wages or steady income. A majority may participate in the informal workforce which is plagued by inconsistent incomes, lack of social safety nets, insurance and seasonality.

After retirement, Narasamma is left with a government pension of 1,200 rupees (approximately 15 US dollars). It is hardly enough to pay for all the costs she incurs to manage her two chronic ailments. Her diabetes medicines, including insulin, cost her 3,700 rupees per month (about 50 US dollars). Heart medicine is about 1,000 rupees (13 US dollars). If the doctor at the hospital orders any tests like an electrocardiogram (ECG), she has to pay extra, along with the consultation fee of 1,200 rupees (15 US dollars).

Narasamma travels to the city every month to get the medicine at the diabetes hospital and at the larger pharmacies in the city (for her heart medicines). She has to take two buses to get to the city to meet up with her children who then help her get to the hospital and pharmacy. For this, she spends another 500 rupees (7 US dollars) on bus tickets. In total, Narasamma spends about 5,200 rupees (about 70 US dollars) per month.

Inability to pay, prioritization of the health needs of the breadwinner in the family, lack of transport, and lack of support to visit a far-off hospital for long-term care (which a chronic NCD requires) are some of the factors hindering consistent treatment of NCDs in women. Treatment of diabetes, for example, costs about 6,000 rupees ($80 at current rates) per year in rural areas and 10,000 rupees (approx. $135) in urban areas. Treatment for cardiovascular diseases can be even higher, especially if inpatient care is required. The hospitals providing NCD care — especially for cardiology — are unavailable in smaller towns and rural areas, thus requiring frequent travel to hospitals in far-off towns and cities. All these barriers are often insurmountable to women with limited or no financial means to pay for sustained treatment of a chronic illness.

*Click here for the interactive visualization of the cost of Diabetes and Cardiovascular care in India.

It is clear that Narasamma would not be able to afford the steep financial burden to treat her chronic ailments. In theory, the government hospitals near her that are responsible for treating her and providing free or subsidized medicines often do not have the resources to support her treatment consistently. “They don’t always have the medicine I require,” she says. “The pharmacies are smaller, and the government hospitals are not always stocked with these medicines.” She has no choice but to seek treatment and medicines in the city which requires her to travel there every month.

Narasamma’s son is a cab driver and lives in the city with his family. He pays for her medicine each month. “I have to arrange for the money once I know she is coming into town to get them,” he said. There are occasions when he had to borrow money to pay for the medicines. Sometimes he has taken loans from banks, but these days it is more often from friends and family. It was especially difficult during the COVID-19 period when his own income fell, so he had to borrow money to buy medicine for his mother.

Without such a family support system, Narasamma’s chronic illnesses would go untreated or under-treated. “I am happy with the level of care provided,” Narasamma says of the private hospital she frequents. “They treat us well and prescribe good medicines. Earlier, they used to give the medicine free because they had a donor [for low-income patients], but now we buy them. But it is good because my health is stable with their treatment.” It is possible to be treated there only with her son’s financial support. She is lucky that she has a place to stay when she is in the city, and her children accompany her to the hospital or pharmacy. Without such support to help with the logistics of travel, stay, and finances, patients would find it challenging to access treatment and medicines as consistently as Narasamma has been able to over the last decade.

Those unable to maintain such access contribute to increasing DALYs and mortality numbers due to these chronic NCDs. Measuring such access/lack of access and the resultant fall out of undertreatment and lack of treatment needs more robust healthcare utilization data from all providers across the country. Who is falling through the cracks and how can we count them?

New Frontiers in Health Care Utilization Data in India

To achieve the targets of reducing mortality and prevention of NCDs, healthcare providers, governments and policymakers need data on who is seeking and receiving healthcare, where and how and, the outcomes of care to assess the quality of healthcare being provided. Utilization studies are few and far in between and data is not consistent, periodic or comprehensive. This is especially true for private/non-government hospitals where utilization data is not aggregated or shared for wider use by researchers and policymakers. This is a significant lacuna in the data available since 70% of India’s citizens seek health care in private doctors’ clinics/private hospitals or other informal providers. Self-reported data in surveys conducted by the government is usually the only available data on healthcare utilization in the country.

Data on health care utilization/cost of care/source of care (public, private, other) along with anonymized demographic indicators will give a window into health care utilization and help us study barriers to care for NCDs. Currently, while we have prevalence data, DALYs calculated by region and by gender, we have no reliable data on who is able to access sustained care for NCDs. As they are chronic diseases, patients need review and medication for long periods of time, often for their lifetime. With the current state of utilization data (even if aggregate, and not patient-wise — since Electronic Health Records (EHRs) are not widespread in government hospitals and are used only in high-end private hospitals in large cities) — it is not possible to study any trends and patterns. Even where EHRs exist, due to concerns of privacy and confidentiality and a lack of robust regulatory frameworks governing health care data (or any other data), sharing of data hardly ever happens. If de-identified patient data (with patient consent under the best case scenario) is stored, curated into datasets and shared (even with a cost involved), it can be of immense value to assess patterns of disease, treatment pathways, the effectiveness of treatment and, health disparities at various intersectionalities.

If we have to assess whether women (or any other vulnerable categories of citizens such as the disabled, the socially disadvantaged/marginalized groups) are seeking treatment for NCDs, and the reasons they are not doing so, we need to have access to data from health care providers in all settings: government, private; rural, urban, OPD and in-patient. Even if all settings are not primed to provide data due to imperfect and/or manual record keeping, a start can be made by collecting from as many providers as possible in each state. Data aggregators can also be trained to convert paper data to electronic data, thus creating datasets from paper records at hospitals and other healthcare settings.

How to set and adhere to regulatory frameworks to collect and use anonymized patient care data ethically and without harm to patients is an issue that India as a country has to deal with sooner or later. Allowing this lacuna to be a show-stopper in developing and using datasets is counterproductive to the cause of health care for all. Instead, all stakeholders have to push for the development of such frameworks that will allow us to move forward with collecting and using healthcare utilization data. If we were to pull off this high-stakes project of patient data for ethical use, it would indeed be a new frontier in healthcare policy and planning in India, hopefully leading to better delivery of healthcare to all sections of the population.

Research for this article and the preparation of visuals in Tableau were a part of a Data Journalism Fellowship (2021–2022) awarded to the author by Equal Measures 2030 (EqualMeasures2030.org) and the Tableau Foundation (USA).

It was then published as part of Open Heroines’ writing grants series, intended to elevate the voices of women and non-binary people in the open spaces.

Lalita Pulavarti is the Director at 3H Catalyst, where she sees an exciting opportunity to use her education, skills and experience as a trainer to design and implement upskilling programs in India. She has over twenty years of experience spanning social research, gender, grassroots development and, Accountability and Transparency in Governance. Find her on Twitter, @Lalita_Pulavart.

The Burden of Non-Communicable Diseases in India was originally published in Open Heroines on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

But how well did the open+ spaces do this year? What are some of the wins and misses?

Below are some reflections from the Open Heroines community on the state of open in 2022:

Heather Leson
There is a rise of OSPOs (Open Source Program Offices) in humanitarian and business which could be an indicator of open growing. However, it is super unclear that open is faring well in each sector. I am wondering whether it will be stunted or tarnished by the rise of nationalism in some countries.

Gender inclusion and leadership was very much on my mind and in our activities at Open Organizations and Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT). It strikes me that we will always need to focus on gender inclusion.

This year I participated in three publications to support open:

1)Opening Up Social Impact-Focused Organizations

2)Open Leadership Assessment

3) Open Mapping towards SDGs

Open Mapping towards Sustainable Development Goals

Arnalie Vicario
I just joined the Open Heroines network this year (thank you @Heather for inviting me) and I really felt the community’s support and warm welcome! In the open mapping / openstreetmap space that I am very engaged in, a lot has happened but would like to highlight two things:

1)Re-examining where we hold “open” and “international” in-person conferences.

Instead of a central Humanitarian Openstreetmap Team (HOT) Summit / conference, HOT ventured in a different approach investing resources in supporting and collaborating on a range of community events, bringing the spirit of the Summit to multiple new places and hundreds of new people! — the unSummit approach.
After 2 years of online conferences, State of the Map (SotM) 2022 was held in-person in Florence, Italy this year (with an online component). Moving forward, the SotM Working Group has decided not to organize an international State of the Map 2023. Instead, they will focus on finding a venue in Africa for 2024 (regionally, the conference was never held here).

2)Opening the pathway to a more diverse leadership on the Openstreetmap Foundation Board. (incorporated 2006/2007).

In 2020,Eugene Villar from the Philippines became the first person of color on the board and in the 2022 elections 3 women ran for elections and 2 won (me included). I became the first woman of color to be elected to the board.

Small steps, but I am looking forward to learning and growing with Open Heroines :)

Anna Wenerska-Dzieduch

From my point of view, the process of opening data in Poland at the governmental level is going well as shown here, but surely this process could be faster and uniform at the regional and local level.

The Open Heroines Community helped me realize that Polish open-data issues are so different from those in other parts of the world. As we implement governmental solutions in Poland, we should also take notice of and support growing non-governmental institutions which want to deal with open data, in particular in the sphere of gender open data.

Marisa Miodosky

In 2022 I felt that our community got stronger and more cohesive. I would like to highlight three facts I am proud of:

1)Our membership grew and the community got new energetic people. As a result of that, we started the Open Heroines Labs that allowed us to work together and to learn more from each other.

2)We met in person at America Abierta with many founding members of Open Heroines who were able to transmit the mystic of birth of our community to our just joined members. In one of the most well-attended meetings of the Conference, we worked on an agenda that brought together the open government and the gender agenda in the region.

3)Our community continues to create a space where members with similar interests can collaborate and this is great for personal career development as well stirring creativity in the open civic space.

Silvana Fumega, Global Data Barometer

In May 2022, the new Global Data Barometer (GDB) launched the results of its first edition, after two years of intensive work by many organizations and colleagues. Here are some numbers related to this first edition: 109 countries, 12 regional hubs, 6 thematic partners, 39 indicators, and more than 60000 data points. In this report and on this website, you’ll also find information on +1100 datasets, +900 frameworks, and +70 open data initiatives.

The GDB is a key global benchmark that looks at data governance, capability, availability, and use and impact of data for public good and provides longitudinal data that can drive policy making, dialogue, and further empirical research.

Tracy Kadessa
Attending Open conferences continues to be a nightmare for many participants travelling with passports from African countries. We can not continue to say we are inclusive if those from African countries are unnecessarily discriminated. Let us stop hosting Open conferences in countries that are allergic to people from African countries.

Tanya Yeomans
Just want to say a little thank you to all the Open Heroine folks for sharing your work, ideas, and resources all year. I find this space so wonderful thanks to your collective efforts.

Yanina Bellini Saibene
I want to express my gratitude to this space (Open Heroines). I hope I can be more active next year, but I have learned so much about so many communities and initiatives here. It fills me with hope that we can build a better world.

How did “open” fare this year? was originally published in Open Heroines on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Open Heroines is looking for a creative Web Designer to help us build a new website.

We are a growing organisation that supports women and non-binary people working in the Open+ spaces, i.e. Open Data, Open Government and Civic Tech.

The current website is hosted on Medium. We are looking to change the platform to Webflow.

The ideal candidate should be comfortable working remotely with a geographically-distributed team. You may be in any time zone. However, we prefer candidates who are available for communication between 12 pm and 5 pm GMT.

Responsibilities will include:

• Build out a website on Webflow (other methods can be considered)
• Design page layouts, static and motion graphics
• Migrate content from the current site to the new one
• Conceptualise and create intuitive, engaging, and brand-consistent web experiences
• Implement and maintain high-quality SEO policies and incorporate them with web content
• Undertake regular A/B tests to optimise results
• Liaise with the Communications Lead to ensure that tasks are completed on time
• Collect and analyse data on website usage to improve performance
• Respond to reports of technical problems and work with the team to fix them quickly

Desired skills and experience

• Working knowledge of a range of software, hardware and operating systems
• Experience in providing and implementing website designs with PHP, Python, CSS3 (SCSS), Javascript, and Responsive Web Design to modern standards
• Acquainted with Google Optimise or similar A/B test platforms
• An understanding of Google Analytics
• Competence in UI/UX design is a bonus
• Knowledge of user experience best practices
• An understanding of the key principles of branding
• Knowledge of typography and an understanding of colour theory

Open Heroines is offering a budget of up to $15,000 USD. The contractor will need to cover all legally required deductions, taxes and benefits out of this amount.

If you are interested in this position, please send the following to worldopenheroines@gmail.com by Friday, December 16, 2022:

• Resume/Portfolio
• A cover letter (250–500 words) on why you would be a good fit for the consultancy
• A budget template, including your projected fees and hours

Term of Contract

The contract will commence no later than January 16, 2023.

Call for Consultancy — Web Designer was originally published in Open Heroines on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Open Heroines is excited to be invited to The Feminist Forum of the XV Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean, taking place on November 7 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. We are eager to join the discussions and present insights on the Regional Gender Agenda and other pertinent gender issues that arose from our workshop at the América Abierta in September.

The Feminist Forums are parallel events to the Regional Conference on Women, organized independently by civil society organizations and feminist movements. The forums highlight the contribution of feminism to the region’s democratization and the work they carry out in different territories (including the digital domain, as is our case) for cultural change and against gender inequalities. Insights from these one-day forums usually feed into the Regional Conference on Women, an event that targets government officials.

This year, the Conference theme is “The care society: horizon for a sustainable recovery with gender equality”. About a month ago, Open Heroines held a workshop at America Abierta in Santo Domingo to discuss this very topic!

During this session which attracted about 50 participants — some of them Heroines — we brainstormed about how we can collectively promote the care agenda through digital civic activism and open government. Why the care economy? Latin America is increasingly becoming an ageing continent with more care needs. At the same time, it has one of the highest gender economic gaps due to women’s disproportionate care responsibilities. It is, therefore, crucial to address care (who cares, how much, at what value, etc.) as it is intrinsically associated with the region´s development. Equal distribution of care responsibilities from a gender perspective is a necessary condition for the region’s prosperity.

In that regard, the workshop participants raised the following themes, which I will be sharing and looking out for at the conference:-

• Mobility of care + collectivization of care
• Effective paternity policies
• Listen to groups that care and are cared for
• Intersectionality between gender and other identities, particularly indigenous women
• Dialogue with men about caring

Additionally, we discussed this paper on Breaking the statistical silence to achieve gender equality in 2030, which will be analyzed at the Women´s Regional Conference. A majority of the participants raised the need to produce, make visible, use and communicate more open data in coordination with the regional gender agenda.

Without a doubt, the open data and gender guide we are producing in one of the OH Labs will be a contribution. (Heads up to those still wanting to participate!)

I came back from América Abierta very inspired because I confirmed the potential we have as a community to articulate and promote transformative ideas. I was impressed by how the diversity of our backgrounds contrasted with the same passion and commitment that move us to work for a fairer society.

Not to mention the unifying spirit that feminists showed when we joined the feminist movement in Santo Domingo in the streets to demonstrate against the total abortion ban in the Dominican Republic.

More About The Feminist Forum/Regional Conference on Women

These forums are very relevant spaces to the construction of the policy agenda that seeks gender equality in the region. Throughout the fifteen summits that have happened so far since 1977, a substantive Regional Gender Agenda has been formed, which has guided the gender equality action plans of numerous governments. In fact, the recent creation of Ministries for Gender Equality in Chile, Costa Rica, Paraguay, Cuba, Mexico, and Brazil, among others, was in response to the commitment of the governments during the summits — to prioritize the areas of the public administration that work for women’s rights and diversity. The same goes for the formulation of laws on quotas and/or electoral parity or the legalization of abortion, although these rights are less widespread in the region.

Side note: If you’ll be in Buenos Aires, either for the Feminist Forum or the Regional Conference, please message Marisa at marisa@openheroines.org.

Feminist Perspectives on Care Economy: A Brief on Open Heroines’ Workshop at América Abierta was originally published in Open Heroines on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

I had the chance to attend for the first time Abrelatam/ConDatos, the meeting point for the Latin America data community in late September. This is where activists, public officials, researchers and those interested in using quality data converge.

Abrelatam takes the form of an unconference where the agenda is built at the moment with the contributions of all those present, while ConDatos is the main conference in which experiences and learning are exposed through panels and conversations.

This year, the event was built around 16 themes and organized in 4 blocks. Some of the themes included gender data, inclusion and data, civic technology, artificial intelligence, and Open State. Beyond learning a lot about these themes, in this blog I would like to reflect on three “people-centred” reasons why I believe Abrelatam/ConDatos is a must-attend event for any data person who speaks/understands Spanish:

You get to know what MANY people think about hot data themes in a very short period of time. Unlike a panel where you listen to presentations, Abre-Latam allows anybody present in the group discussion to express their concerns, opinions and ideas about the theme at hand. It is a truly democratic exercise where every person´s voice counts, regardless of their precedence and hierarchy in the organization they work for.

I was impressed by the number of people and projects from so many different countries I met (and found interesting) in only 20 minutes. It was a snapshot of the diversity of the region´s progress in terms of data production, openness and use with the common cross-regional need: every person demanding more and better data. Participants from Mexico — a country with the first representative survey that measures gender identity and sexual orientation — and activists in El Salvador — where there is no single data on gender identity — were all calling for more gender-disaggregated data.

2. The unstructured format of the event leaves you with much room (physical and time) for personal interactions. You get to know participants’ personal stories which are as enlightening as any fancy data project. It so happened that during the registration process, I met Luis from Santo Domingo who was nervous because he was managing his baby´s care at the conference. He mentioned how difficult it was for him to raise his 3-month-old alone and even further, having his request for parental leave denied — which is not often considered for men.

We still have a long way to go in terms of equality and rights to care, even in the progressive civil society/data ecosystem. Practise what you preach!

3. The third reason to attend Abrelatam is the possibility to make new quality friends. I was queuing for lunch on the first day when I met Gabriela, a Brazilian sociologist, working as an Independent Reviewer for the Open Government Partnership. We were discussing the religious movement supporting Bolsonaro when we realized that both of us were Jewish and had spent the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah) away from our families. We observed that it was not very appropriate to have the conference take place over a holy day for a big community. If we want to have a truly open and inclusive America, we must consider major religious events.

Gabriela and I attended many other talks together during the conference, and since then have been sharing books & movie suggestions and identifying more people we know in common in this big little town that our world is.

A key takeaway I would like to highlight: while meetings for data/open government professionals empower all of us who work for open political systems and fair societies, we need to do more, better and probably different. Data presented at the conference showed that citizens are not trusting in governments and public institutions to improve their lives and that open data is not being used enough for policy change. I hope we take all the inspiration we gained from the event into projects that do make a real difference and with a gender perspective.

I had a great time at Abrelatam/ConDatos and also at América Abierta where we hosted a session discussing the synergies between the open government and regional gender agendas (I will expand on this in a future blog).

The next Abrelatam/ConDatos will take place in November 2023 in Uruguay, the same country where it was born 10 years ago. I encourage you to attend!

Why Every Data Person Should Attend Abrelatam/ConDatos was originally published in Open Heroines on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

En el primer semestre de 2022 participé con una beca de Open Heroines del curso Datos contra el Feminicidio para mujeres y disidencias de Latinoamérica y el Caribe. El campo de conocimiento de los datos, es todavía, un campo no-popular, no-masificado. Por el contrario, es más bien restrictivo para personas que son estudiosas del tema. Como militante del movimiento social feminista, salgo del curso con la idea de que, como tal, tengo la responsabilidad de promover estrategias para hacer accesible el conocimiento de datos sobre feminicidio, para que podamos intervenir políticamente con perspectiva feminista en la creación y gestión de dichos datos.

El desafío es grande, pero necesario. La producción de datos es un territorio de disputa de la lucha social, donde tenemos que avanzar para lograr una mejor prevención de los feminicidios. Asimismo, los usos, aplicaciones de los datos, y el dominio de ese tipo de conocimiento aporta a un accionar político estratégico de combate y visibilización de los feminicidios.

El orígen del término feminicidio y su reconocimiento internacional

Hasta inicios de los años noventa la terminología empleada para categorizar el asesinato de mujeres era la “violencia doméstica”. El cambio de categoría se conformó en México con el hecho feminicida ocurrido en la frontera con Estados Unidos, cuando “cientos de mujeres, muchas de las cuales trabajaban en la industria maquilladora (planta de ensamblado) en la región (…) comenzaron a aparecer mutiladas, torturadas, y a menudo, abusadas sexualmente en Ciudad Juárez (Chihuahua, México)” (Fumega et al, 2018). A ello, se sumó la consolidación de la tercera ola feminista internacional que acentuó su carácter de movimiento de derechos humanos de mujeres y disidencias. La conformación del término para definir el asesinato de mujeres y disidencias basado en género permitió, por un lado, dar visibilidad a éste hecho como un fenómeno de nuestras sociedades construidas sobre pilares estructurantes del machismo y, por otro, fortalecer el combate a la violencia basada en género.

El reconocimiento internacional del término feminicidio favoreció el desarrollo de informaciones específicas sobre el fenómeno. “Entendemos el feminicidio como las muertes violentas de mujeres por razones de género, en intersección con otras desigualdades (…). Utilizamos la noción de muerte violenta por incluir no solo los asesinatos, sino también otras muertes que resultan de la violencia y la discriminación por razones de género (…). El concepto de feminicidio sitúa a esta forma de violencia como una violación de los derechos humanos de las mujeres, señalando así el rol del Estado, en particular su negligencia e inatención, y a veces complicidad hacia la problemática.” (VAL, 2022).

Caracterización de los feminicidios

La gran cuestión sobre el feminicidio es su caracterización. Los atributos del término varían de país en país. Están los países que utilizan dos términos: femicidio y feminicidio; lo que nos lleva a dimensiones diferentes de la violencia basada en género. También, a nivel social, la aceptación cultural se presenta como una tranca para su aplicación política por parte del Estado. La disputa en torno del término tiene rasgos muchas veces ideológicos: unos grupos de interés van a reconocer a las mujeres-trans, otros van a defender exclusivamente el binarismo. Los avances simbólicos sobre la violencia basada en género se darán según la presión popular, ya que el machismo estructural impide el flujo libre de la conformación de una sociedad con perspectiva feminista.

Producción de datos y militancia feminista

El uso de datos para la elaboración de información para el combate a la violencia machista es uno de los frentes estratégicos necesarios a ocupar con mirada feminista en el siglo XXI. La producción de datos sobre feminicidios exige de una militancia contundente y conocedora de la temática. El sistema contemporáneo es extremadamente complejo para aquellos que buscan comprender las “rutas críticas del corporativismo de la masculinidad” (R.Segatto).

Mientras avanzamos en derechos, las rutas críticas del corporativismo se moldea a nuevas formas de violentar nuestras corporeidades. En cuanto buscamos por la inclusión del feminicidio en la producción de datos de los gobiernos nacionales, la gobernanza de datos cierra perillas evitando la transparencia pública y el acceso a la información a la opinión pública. En muchos países de Latinoamérica la producción de datos sobre feminicidio se encuentra rehén de los medios de comunicación, hecho que transforma la hoja de ruta en un verdadero enmarañado de datos que tenemos que lidiar para tratarlos, estandarizarlos para recién hacerlo público como información contextualizada a una realidad local, regional y mundial.

Organizaciones como ILDA y Open Heroines contribuyen a la transformación de nuestras sociedades al motivar la participación popular en estudios sobre datos contra feminicidios, generando también un diálogo interseccional entre datos y el fenómeno del feminicidio en nuestros territorios. Por consecuencia del curso, el aprendizaje que adquirí no se limitó a los apuntes personales, sino que pude avanzar las fronteras del yo y compartir el conocimiento con mis compañeras feministas. Al generar un espacio de diálogo pudimos debatir y comprender de manera conjunta los posibles impactos del uso de este conocimiento para combatir la violencia basada en género en Uruguay.

Poniendo el aprendizaje en acción

En reunión organizativa de La Colectiva Durazno (colectivo feminista del cual soy integrante) decidimos, a partir del diálogo de Datos sobre Feminicidios, promover la creación de una red feminista de dateras para tratar sobre el feminicidio en Uruguay. Buscamos formas de financiación para llevar a cabo nuestra propuesta de Red de Dateras, nos articulamos entre diferentes colectividades y militantes territoriales para lograr un primer paso, y con mucho esfuerzo colectivo pudimos lograr la realización de la primera etapa. En los primeros días de setiembre del 2022 brindamos a la militancia feminista de Uruguay un encuentro virtual de acercamiento, capacitación y formación en datos contra los feminicidios con participación de investigadoras, activistas del área de Datos y del periodismo.

El qué hacer con este conocimiento, no es una etapa simple, al contrario, la materialización de ideas es algo muy complejo, lo que exige parsimonia, al mismo tiempo que mucha impronta para accionar políticamente por un camino tan delicado y chocante.

Por acá vamos avanzando en el debate para fortalecer la agrupación frente a un asunto tan novedoso para toda/es nosotra/es, como lo es el mundo de los datos. En un primer momento discutimos, de manera simplificada: ¿Qué son los datos? Estandarización y recolección de datos. ¿Cómo generar información a partir de los datos? En un segundo momento resolvimos impulsar el proyecto de creación de una red feminista y participativa de recolección de datos sobre el feminicidio en Uruguay.

Nuestra expectativa es alcanzar el compromiso militante de diferentes colectividades feministas en el territorio uruguayo para que sean co-autora/es del proyecto, y que durante este y el próximo año podamos lograr un avanzado compromiso de lucha y combate al feminicidio en Uruguay.

Referencias

Fumega, Silvana, Fabrizio Scrollini, y Gabriela Rodríguez. (2018). Nuevos Estándares para la publicación de datos de justicia y violencia de género In: Justicia Abierta: Aportes para una agenda en construcción. pp. 283–293.

Val, H. S.(2022). Situando los datos de feminicidio. Datos Contra Feminicidio. ILDA.

Leticia Marroquim es integrante de la Colectiva Durazno/Uruguay.

Creando Datos Abiertos Enmarcados en Feminismos was originally published in Open Heroines on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.