Advocacy

What we advocate for

Our advocacy has one aim: that a woman's experience of Heathenry should depend on her deeds and not on her sex.

In practice that means working on four stubborn problems.

• Safety. Harassment and coercion at gatherings, and the habit of treating a complaint as a worse offense than the conduct complained of.
• Voice. Women who are present but not heard, who are talked over at the fire and passed over when rites and offices are assigned.
• Credit. Work done by women that is noticed only when it stops, or praised under someone else's name.
• Misuse of the past. The use of history, real or imagined, to tell women what their place is.

None of these is unique to Heathenry. But Heathens have particular reasons to do better, and particular tools in our own tradition for doing so.

The Frith Standard

The Frith Standard is a model code of conduct that any kindred, study group, or festival can adopt. It is short, practical, and written in Heathen terms. It covers welcome, conduct, consent, alcohol, children, the fair sharing of work, and what to do when something goes wrong.

The first edition was published in 2019 and the second in 2022. As of this autumn it has been adopted by 58 kindreds and event organizers in eleven countries. A third edition is open for members' comment and will be put to a vote at Disting 2027.

Frithkeeper training

A code is only as good as the people who uphold it. The Frith Standard asks every group to name at least two frithkeepers: trusted people to whom anyone can bring a concern, and who are responsible for seeing that it is dealt with.

Twice a year, in spring and autumn, we offer a free four-session course for frithkeepers. It covers how to listen to a report, how to keep a fair record, how to act when the person accused is a friend or a leader, and when a matter must go to the police or other authorities. The course is led by our Safeguarding Lead and is open to people of any gender from any inclusive group.

Position statements

Our position statements set out where we stand on inclusion, on the standing of women, and on extremism. Since our founding statement on inclusion, each one has been drafted by the Advocacy working group, debated by the members, and adopted only by a vote at Disting. They are written to be quoted, and groups are welcome to adopt them as their own.

Advice for kindreds

We regularly hear from kindred leaders, many of them men, who want their groups to be better places for women and are not sure where to start. We are always glad to hear from them. Our guide For Kindreds and Organizers gathers what we have learned, and members of the working group will talk through particular situations in confidence.

Setting the record straight

We answer, patiently and with sources, the claims that Heathenry is a religion of one ancestry, that it prescribes a subordinate place for women, or that its symbols belong to those who have misused them. Much of this site exists for that purpose. See in particular Women in Heathen History and our Statement Against Extremism.