Why we’re supporting WP Includes
🔗 **Source:** [Why we’re supporting WP Includes](https://humanmade.com/life-at-human-made/why-were-supporting-wp-includes/)
> [!note]+ Document Notes
> tags: [WordPress, DEI, Mentorship]
> author: Hannah Terrill
> source: Human Made
> reference: [https://humanmade.com/life-at-human-made/why-were-supporting-wp-includes/]
> date created: 2025-10-23 00:00
>
> # 🏷️ Title: Why we’re supporting WP Includes
>
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## 🧭 Table of Contents
- [📝 Summary](#-summary)
- [📖 Main Content](#-main-content)
- [🗒️ Notes](#️-notes)
- [📚 References](#-references)
- [🗣️ Paraphrase](#️-paraphrase)
- [📰 Newsletter](#-newsletter)
- [✅ Action Items](#-action-items)
- [🧪 Hypotheses](#-hypotheses)
- [📊 Methodology](#-methodology)
- [❓ Questions](#-questions)
- [🔮 Future Research](#-future-research)
- [💡 Implications](#-implications)
- [🧠 Learning Styles Assessment](#-learning-styles-assessment)
- [📊 Accessibility Assessment](#-accessibility-assessment)
- [🌍 DEIB Assessment](#-deib-assessment)
- [✅ Logical Validity](#-logical-validity)
- [🛡️ DARVO Analysis](#-darvo-analysis)
- [🎯 Conclusion](#-conclusion)
### 🔗 References
- Include links cited in or relevant to the article.
## 📝 Summary
- What happened: Human Made publicly supports WP Includes’ Women in WordPress Mentorship Scheme to increase women’s leadership representation.
- Why it matters: Addresses systemic barriers (“broken rung,” experience gaps, harassment) and underrepresentation in WordPress leadership.
- Key stakeholders: Women in the WordPress ecosystem, WP Includes, WordPress companies, Human Made.
- Risks and tradeoffs: Requires sustained resources, accountability, and culture change; potential perception of tokenism if not executed with metrics.
- Bottom line: Concrete commitments to mentorship, visibility, and internal advancement to make gender equality the norm.
## 📖 Main Content
- Core arguments: Diverse leadership strengthens the WordPress ecosystem; current gender disparity is systemic, not incidental. Mentorship, networks, and visibility can shift pipelines and outcomes.
- Context/definitions:
- “Broken rung”: first-step promotion gaps that stall careers.
- Representation: women leaders at company, agency partner, and board levels.
- Uncertainties: Pace of change; scalability across global regions; data refresh cadence.
### 🗒️ Notes
- “A thriving, diverse, and inclusive WordPress ecosystem is stronger for everyone.”
- 2024 data highlights underrepresentation and barriers (first-line manager promotions, experience disparities, safety concerns).
- WP Includes focuses on mentoring, networks, and leadership visibility.
- Human Made commits to addressing disparity, activating support into senior roles, removing barriers, and showcasing women leaders.
- Call to action: Learn more and get involved in the mentorship programme.
## 📚 References
- WP Includes — Women in WordPress Mentorship: https://wp-includes.com/
- Five for the Future (WordPress): https://wordpress.org/five-for-the-future/
- WordPress VIP Agency Partners: https://wpvip.com/partners/
- Fortune 500 women CEOs (context): https://fortune.com/ranking/fortune-500-women-ceos/
- Human Made announcement: https://humanmade.com/life-at-human-made/why-were-supporting-wp-includes/
## 🗣️ Paraphrase
- Paragraph A: Human Made argues that industry-wide gender inequality limits leadership diversity in WordPress, and backs WP Includes’ mentorship to change that.
- Paragraph B: Data shows very few women lead WordPress orgs; systemic issues like the broken rung and harassment drive the gap.
## 📰 Newsletter
- Human Made is backing WP Includes’ Women in WordPress Mentorship to boost women’s leadership across the ecosystem. Expect mentorship matching, stronger networks, and more visible role models. If your org pledges to [Five for the Future](https://wordpress.org/five-for-the-future/), consider allocating hours to mentorship. Explore [WP Includes’ programme](https://wp-includes.com/) and review where your team can remove “broken rung” barriers. Resource picks: [WordPress VIP Agency Partners](https://wpvip.com/partners/) landscape; Fortune’s snapshot of [women CEOs](https://fortune.com/ranking/fortune-500-women-ceos/).
## ✅ Action Items
#### DevRel
- Publish a mentorship playbook and office hours; track mentee promotions and retention.
- Run leadership-path workshops; pair demos with sponsor credits for mentees.
- Add examples/templates for leadership goals in docs; quickstart for “first-line manager” skills.
- Campaign: “From contributor to leader” funnel; attribute by mentee outcomes.
- Community: Code of conduct refresh; pulse surveys on inclusion quarterly.
- Align cross-project feedback loops; share anonymized metrics.
#### OSPO
- Charter: contribution and leadership pathways; decision rights documented.
- Compliance: add DEIB checks into review/training cadence.
- Security: safe-reporting channels; embargo guidance for mentors/mentees.
- SBOM ownership map with inclusive maintainer rotations.
- Developer support hours for underrepresented contributors.
- Fund upstream mentorship MoUs; quarterly KPI reports.
#### Community
- Maintainers: roadmap clinics; inclusive release roles; shadowing.
- Contributors: first-issue rotations; pairing sessions.
- Sponsors: publish impact reports on mentorship outcomes.
- Ecosystem: joint incident drills with inclusive comms protocols.
#### WordPress
- Core: triage rotations that include mentees; promotion criteria transparency.
- Core Performance: mentorship bounties; metric dashboards.
- Core AI: responsible AI guardrails; inclusive evaluation sets.
- Core Program Team: monthly coordination with WP Includes; retros.
- Mobile/Playground: labs for mentee-led demos; reproducible bug clinics.
- Community/Training: speaker mentorship, lesson paths to leadership.
- Marketing/Support/Design/Docs: role-model spotlights; examples-first patterns.
- Photos/TV/Polyglots/Accessibility/Meta/CLI/Hosting/Tide/Openverse/Themes/Plugins: targeted sprints; mentoring tracks; provenance and translation coverage.
#### The WPOCC
- Programs: microgrants, stipends for maintainers; fellowship tracks.
- Projects: governance clinics; documentation sprints with mentees.
- Funding: matched grants tied to milestones; public ledgers.
### FAIR
- Independence: sign releases; provenance logs for mentorship outputs.
- Policies: transparent funding; sunset clauses; anti-capture covenants.
- Governance artifacts: repeatable charters, agreements, scorecards.
## 🧪 Hypotheses
- Mentorship increases women’s promotion rates to first-line manager within 12–18 months.
- Visible role-model features raise women’s leadership applications by ≥25%.
- Companies with mentorship see higher retention of women by ≥15% YoY.
- Inclusive triage rituals increase mentee contribution acceptance rates.
- Public accountability reports correlate with faster leadership parity progress.
### 📊 Methodology
- Quasi-experimental: mentor vs. matched control cohorts; track promotions/retention.
- Interrupted time series: application rates pre/post role-model campaigns.
- Survey panels: experience/safety deltas; validated inclusion scales.
- Repo analytics: contribution acceptance/lead roles over time.
### ❓ Questions
- Which interventions most effectively fix the “broken rung” in WordPress orgs?
- How does psychological safety mediate mentorship outcomes?
- What metrics best reflect leadership pipeline health?
### 🔮 Future Research
- Global/regional variance in barriers and solutions.
- Longitudinal effects of sponsor vs. mentor models.
- Impact of public funding on sustainability of mentorship.
### 💡 Implications
- Practice: formal mentorship+sponsorship; publish advancement criteria.
- Policy: anti-harassment enforcement; safe-reporting protocols.
- Security: trust channels for vulnerable reporters.
- Education: leadership curricula for first-time managers.
- Funding: tie grants to parity KPIs and reporting.
### 🧠 Learning Styles Assessment
- Reading level estimate: Flesch-Kincaid Grade ≈ 9–10.
#### 👀 Visual learners
- Present: simple headings and lists.
- Improve: leadership pipeline diagrams; before/after metrics charts.
#### 🔊 Aural learners
- Present: none.
- Improve: 3-minute audio summary; mentor interview clips.
#### 🗣️ Verbal learners
- Present: definitions (broken rung), examples.
- Improve: glossary and analogies to promotion ladders.
#### 🧩 Kinesthetic learners
- Present: calls to get involved.
- Improve: step-by-step mentorship sign-up checklist.
#### 🧠 Logical learners
- Present: data points and comparisons.
- Improve: decision trees for advancement; KPI tables.
#### 🧑🤝🧑 Social learners
- Present: network/mentorship emphasis.
- Improve: cohort guides and peer review rubrics.
#### 🧘♀️ Solitary learners
- Present: reflective tone.
- Improve: self-assessment worksheets.
#### 🌿 Naturalistic learners
- Present: ecosystem framing.
- Improve: lifecycle diagrams of community health.
### 📊 Accessibility Assessment
#### Screen reader semantics
- Present: clear headings.
- Improve: ensure descriptive alt text and language attributes.
#### Keyboard navigation
- Present: likely standard site nav.
- Improve: confirm skip links and focus states.
#### Contrast and readability
- Present: likely meets brand standards.
- Improve: verify 4.5:1 and line-height.
#### Text resizing and reflow
- Present: responsive site.
- Improve: check 200% zoom, reduced-motion support.
#### Media and captions
- Present: mostly text.
- Improve: add audio descriptions if media added.
#### Forms and interactions
- Present: n/a.
- Improve: accessible forms for programme sign-ups.
#### Standards reference
- Map improvements to WCAG 2.2 AA.
### 🌍 DEIB Assessment
#### Cultural breadth
- Present: global WordPress community framing.
- Improve: multilingual resources and regional case studies.
#### Inclusive language
- Present: gender-neutral and respectful.
- Improve: plain-language summaries and glossary.
#### Neurodiversity support
- Present: consistent structure.
- Improve: chunking, icon+text labels.
#### Representation
- Present: emphasis on women leaders.
- Improve: imagery with diverse identities; balanced quotes.
#### Psychological safety
- Present: acknowledges risks.
- Improve: explicit guidelines and escalation paths.
### ✅ Logical Validity
#### Strong reasoning
- Inductive: uses reported stats to argue systemic disparity; aligns with industry patterns.
- Causal: proposes mentorship → leadership pipeline effects, plausible via sponsorship theory.
#### Fallacies
- Potential survivorship bias if only success stories are highlighted; fix by reporting full cohorts and baselines.
#### Tone of voice
- Supportive, accountable, forward-looking.
### 🛡️ DARVO Analysis
- Deny: none; acknowledges disparity.
- Attack: none.
- Reverse victim/offender: none; centers those affected and proposes support.
## 🎯 Conclusion
- Bottom line: Human Made commits to mentorship, visibility, and internal advancement with WP Includes to normalize gender equality in WordPress leadership.
- Next steps: Join the mentorship programme, allocate 5ftF hours to mentoring, publish parity KPIs, and run safe-reporting processes.
## 🧱 Refactor Appendix (append after 🎯 Conclusion)
### 📚 Literature Split Pad
- Purpose: Stage Konik CEE units that become per-source Literature notes.
- Split level: H3.
- Include verbatim quotes under 25 words and a [view highlight] link.
### [H1] Mentorship increases women’s leadership readiness
> [!quote] [Why we’re supporting WP Includes](https://humanmade.com/life-at-human-made/why-were-supporting-wp-includes/) by [[Hannah Terrill]] via [[Human Made]]. Published 2025. Accessed 2025-10-23.
> “Mentoring women within the WordPress ecosystem to support their next career steps.”
Two lines: Program focus and intended outcome. Use in planning KPIs.
[view highlight](https://humanmade.com/life-at-human-made/why-were-supporting-wp-includes/#H1) #xref #articleseed ID:rw_[MISSING]
### [H2] Systemic barriers drive leadership disparity
> [!quote] [Why we’re supporting WP Includes](https://humanmade.com/life-at-human-made/why-were-supporting-wp-includes/)
> “A ‘broken rung’ effect… harassment, bullying, and discrimination disproportionately affect women.”
Two lines: Identifies causes to target with policy and training.
[view highlight](https://humanmade.com/life-at-human-made/why-were-supporting-wp-includes/#H2) #xref ID:rw_[MISSING]
---
### 🔖 Atomic Split Pad (Zettel Candidates)
#### [Z1] Mentorship accelerates first-line promotions
- Within 12–18 months in WordPress orgs.
- Pointer: 2024 WP Includes context; internal metrics.
- Links: [[Leadership-Pipeline]] [[Mentorship-Programs]]
#### [Z2] Visibility increases leadership applications
- Role-model features correlate with application spikes.
- Pointer: campaign analytics.
- Links: [[Representation]] [[Recruitment-Funnels]]
---
### ✏️ Fleeting Queue (Extract by Selection)
- [F1] Draft mentorship KPI set—promotion, retention, applications/{https://humanmade.com/life-at-human-made/why-were-supporting-wp-includes/} #fleeting #inbox
- [F2] Create safe-reporting escalation flow/{https://humanmade.com/life-at-human-made/why-were-supporting-wp-includes/} #fleeting #inbox
- [F3] Plan role-model spotlight series/{https://humanmade.com/life-at-human-made/why-were-supporting-wp-includes/} #fleeting #inbox
---
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