What is WO/?

WO/ is a digital publication built as a space where women can seek refuge. A space where women feel understood, not judged, and not reduced to a statistic or a cautionary tale.

Have you ever been in a situation where you were treated unfairly based on your gender? Maybe a work colleague mocking you? Having to be nice to strangers out of fear you'll upset their ego and put yourself in danger? Finding yourself handling all of the emotional baggage in a relationship? Or maybe you're just tired of growing up in a world where women are expected to handle everything and take the fall for every responsibility, but are treated like they're worth nothing.

WO/ understands. And we are listening.

But WO/ is also here to inform you. Between deciphering fake news on women's safety and keeping you updated on the schemes put in place to protect women, and the ones that have been failing us, WO/ aims to eliminate the experience of living through something life-changing, only to be further deceived by government entities and performative promises.

This publication covers safety and legal guidance, accountability reporting, and on site coverage of these systems.

But it will also publish journalism that refuses to frame women only as victims. Survival stories. First-person testimonies. Investigations that don't ask what a woman should have or could have done, but instead ask why men and institutions haven't already changed. Why does the responsibility of protecting women not fall on its main proprietor: men?

WO/ is not going to tell you what your responsibilities are to stay safe. Feeling safe on a day-to-day basis should be a human right, and that responsibility shouldn't lie on you. But we will give you verified tools, should you want or need them, to build your knowledge on what to look out for.

We will give you a space where you feel valued and understood. A space where your voice matters, and your experiences are heard and shared by millions of women.

What does WO/ mean? It signifies us, without being cut off, interrupted, or made to feel second-best. Us, without being told what we should be, what we should look like, or who we are. Us, without being fitted into categories we never asked for.

Most mainstream media deals with femicide and gender inequality by skimming the surface, not digging further because they want their articles to perform well, they don't want to make their readers uncomfortable, they don't want to touch topics they consider taboo. But at WO/, your experiences aren't taboo. They aren't pushed aside or softened to make them easier for other readers to digest.