1/ DeFi to me is about building a more inclusive, fair and open financial system. A big part about building a more inclusive financial system. is ensuring people of different backgrounds feel empowered and included, right from the start!

2/ How are we to build a better system if we exclude the opinions, thoughts and experiences of the same groups of people that are already excluded by the current system?

3/ Inclusion goes beyond women. This thread is focused on my perspectives as a woman, building in DeFi. (I will draw references to traditional finance as a way of expressing my perspective)

4/ As a woman building in DeFi, I feel inferior to the men I work with when I see memes like https://www.reddit.com/r/wallstreetbets/comments/jryz8l/robinhood_retards_are_well_trained_in_ignoring_so/.

5/ I feel insignificant because I wonder if my intelligence and knowledge counts for anything and I feel afraid that my opinions and perspectives won’t be heard, no matter how hard I work, just because I was born with an extra X chromosome.

6/ I feel scared about whether or not I’ll make it, when I look up and see no other leaders / inspiration figures who I can relate to.

7/ Worse still, I feel angry when I see the ideal successful woman represented as fan fiction/through memes. I feel upset because those imagined women are not people that I can relate to. Neither do I aspire to be like these imaginary women, nor can I be like them even if I tried

8/ I feel afraid that instead of uplifting the real women builders/ leaders, all we may have left is the memes and stories which paint a reality so different than what us women aspire to meet.

9/ I don’t want sympathy or pity. What I want is change. I continue to build in DeFi, because I want to pave the way for a more inclusive financial system and I want to help empower other women to share their perspectives.

10/ I want to create a space where other women feel more comfortable sharing their perspectives and opinions!

11/ If you are building in DeFi and want to help change things, the first step is to understand. Here is a good resource to understand the subtle biases that women face: https://www.amazon.com/Island-Sea-Women-Novel/dp/1501154850.

12/ This book presents a matriarchal society. Reading this book helped me realize that there are so many subtle biases in our society, that seem normal in a patriarchal context, but feel jarring in a matriarchal society.

13/ My goal with this thread is not to push men down, it is to pull women up. If you care about learning more and making more changes: https://projectinclude.org/ , @she_256 are both good resources!