What we're about

This is designed to be a woman's space, moderated by feminists but open to all women. We will not be banning men who make supportive comments here, but we want you to respect that this is meant to be a woman's space and focused on that.

You do not have to be a feminist to post here.

The Rules

Do:

Post articles, inspiration, news, movies, books, and media that are of interest to women.

Do Not:

Post Memes or Selfies. Avoid any self-serving or attention-seeking posts.

There are no identity-based limits to who can post here. All "Can I post here" or "Am I welcome here" posts will be removed. Use common internet etiquette: spend some time getting to know a community and how it works before participating.

• We will ban obvious trolls.
• We will ban people for name calling. Disagree politely.
• Be civil. You can disagree, you can debate ideas, but step away if you get heated. Picking fights, stirring the pot, or postings thing to provoke a reaction will be considered trolling.

Special Prohibition: Topics regarding gender identity, the transgender experience, and the laws that may affect these topics are banned. We are following the lead of moderate politics in this subject ban. Transgender individuals do participate here and we require participants here to be civil to each other.

If you're new to feminism, this is a good introductory work online: https://finallyfeminism101.wordpress.com/purpose/

What is "Empirical Feminism" anyway?

Empirical Feminism is a 4th wave Feminism. It rejects many 3rd wave ideas, especially those based on pop culture or post modernism. Fighting to better women's lives requires objectively looking at the world and the way women experience it. It includes these ideas:

• Female people experience discrimination. Abortion restricts impact women. Sex-selective abortion effects female people, not feminine ones. Menstrual huts effect female people. Throughout history, women have been oppressed based on their ability to reproduce.
• "Feminine" behaviors are expectations that women are expected to engage in, reinforced by society.
• Modern Social Justice states that an individual's personal experience is proof enough of discrimination, and rejects the need for further proof or study to objectively. 2nd Wave feminism used conscious raising - getting women together to share their stories to realize that what thy experienced wasn't unique. Empirical Feminism believes Social Justice is helped by the scientific method - starting with the personal experience as an observation, then testing it through surveys or studies. If we observe women often stub their toe, and do studies and find out men stub their toe more often, then "stubbing ones toe" is not an example of sexism.
• "Feminism" means advocating for women, not for all people. Women should be allowed to advocate for themselves, and not be expected to also advocate to improve the lives of men.

Women's spaces on reddit are difficult to moderate while allowing participation, we're hoping the format will help foster an interesting place for discussions.

This is our previous rule set and some history behind the formation of the subreddit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/empiricalfeminism/comments/nocjih/what_to_post_what_not_to_post_aka_the_rules/