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Welcome to Open Heroines

Welcome to the Open Heroines website, a place where you can learn about our work, collaborate with others and help us promote women and non-binary people in open data, open government and civic tech.
As an intersectional feminist online community, we acknowledge the different pathways of our members and strive to collaborate and work in the promotion of women and non-binary people in the open spaces.

Join Us
Learn more
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Our Community

Team of women posing for a camera.
Team of women posing for a camera.
Team of women posing for a camera.
Team of women posing for a camera.
Team of women posing for a camera.
Team of women posing for a camera.
Team of women posing for a camera.
Women smiling at a camera.
Women smiling at a camera.
Two women speaking on a congress.
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Campaigns

There is a considerably lower number of women and non-binary people advocating for open governments, promoting open data use and even building/managing civic technologies. There are frustrations that come with working in male-dominated spaces such as pay discrimination,  sexual harassment, opinions/expertise being overlooked, etc. We use our platform to further these conversations.

#Open Salaries

Pay Discrimination

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How Does Pay Discrimination Impact Careers?

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Why Should Organisations Adopt an Open Salary Policy?

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Toxic Workspaces

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Open Gender Monologues — Bad Bosses edition

This Open Gender Monologue post is dedicated to our bosses in the open data, open government, and civic tech sphere. Based on our good leadership blog post, we decided to share with you some of our experiences of bad leadership. Speaking about incidents of bad leadership is challenging. Usually, our…
July 4, 2017
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8 min
A woman screaming.

Open Gender Monologues — Toxic Work Environments Part 1

Introduction The year is 2020. We’re still far from achieving gender equality, and many women still don’t feel comfortable at work. This International Women’s Day (IWD) 2020, we’ve decided to go back to basics – and advocate for better and healthier work environments. We know, #metoo is very 2018, but toxic…
March 8, 2020
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5 min
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Open Gender Monologues — Toxic Work Environments Part 2

This week, in honor of International Women’s Day, we are publishing a series of monologues from women in toxic work environments in the open data, open government, and civic tech spaces. This model is based off OH’s Open Gender Monologues, opening up space for women to share experiences and tell…
March 10, 2020
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3 min

Abolish Manels!

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MANELs against corruption: highlighting injustice with all male panels at 17th IACC

This thought kept running in my head while I was sitting in the many MANELs (all male-panels) at the 17th International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC) in Panama.
Hera Hussain
January 11, 2017
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2 min
A guy in a crowd.

The Open Heroines Guide for the Guy Who Got Stuck on a Manel

When we started Open Heroines, one thing on our minds was that we consistently weren’t seeing enough women speaking at conferences and events.
November 15, 2019
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5 min
A book on a table.

A Panel of One’s Own

Recently, an unintended manel at the Paris Peace Forum led Open Heroines to write a Guide to the Guy Who Got Stuck on a Manel.
Sarah Orton-Vipond
November 19, 2019
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4 min

Our Events

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Open Heroines Events

Virtual Hangout With Researchers 2.0

November 23, 2023
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November 23, 2023

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Open Heroines Events

Virtual Hangout with Researchers

October 19, 2023
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Come connect with fellow researchers in the community as you exchange knowledge, tools and best practices.

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Open Heroines Blog

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Community Updates

Let's Catch Up!

Happy 8th Anniversary, Open Heroines!
Mor Rubinstein
January 17, 2024
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OGP
Open Government
Feminism

Speak Freely, Speak Safely: Committing to Feminist Online Civic Space

Outcomes from OH/Pollicy Session at OGP Summit
October 4, 2023
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6 min read
Open Government
Feminism
OGP

Feminist Open Government Post-pandemic - Stagnation or Hope?

In 2018, the Open Government Partnership introduced Feminist Open Government as a theme. The following year, the government of Canada adopted it as their main theme for the OGP summit. We saw countries discussing gender and how they can promote equality and for a while, things looked bright. Then the pandemic hit us all, but women, LGBTQ+ and ethnic minorities the most.
September 5, 2023
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5 Min
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Get Involved

Community members and allies can support and build our platform in a number of ways:

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Join Us

Are you a woman or non-binary person, working in the Open+ spaces looking to join our community?

Start Here
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Contribute to Our Blog

Would you like to share your thoughts on open government, open data or civic tech?

Pitch Your Idea Here
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Peer Learning

Share your knowledge and expertise by leading a skill-building workshop.

Let's Connect
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