Diversity, equity and inclusion at the heart of Clue

Clue helps everyone who menstruates to understand their bodies—and to be empowered by that knowledge. Our vision is to enable women and people with cycles to live in tune with their biology, not in spite of it. - Clue’s mission statement.

Diversity, equity and inclusion are values that live at the heart of our mission at Clue. The reason is simple: people who menstruate make up a generous half of this world’s population, which is as beautifully diverse as the rest of humanity. Recognizing this is core to what we as a company want to create, and acts as the North Star to everything we do.

Even so, actually living and actively incorporating these values into our work every day is an ongoing and often challenging process, one that manifests in tough conversations about how we design Clue, the products we develop, the scientific research we support, the topics we bring to our community’s attention in Clue’s content, and also how we work as a company.

Diversity, equity and inclusion are not end states. Like all real values, they are living concepts to which we must give meaning in the actual circumstances of our work. Being female-led and with a team of diverse cultural backgrounds, the questions we face are perhaps somewhat different to those of other companies —it’s not just about getting women into management, or avoiding recruitment from the same school. That’s a given. And a good starting point, but let’s not rest on our laurels. We still need to keep asking ourselves how to be as equitable, as inclusive, and ultimately as diverse as we truly aspire to be. 

But back to the mission and why being serious about diversity, equity and inclusion is central to our success. We’re here to serve people with cycles. This means that we are here to serve you no matter what country and cultural background, whatever ethnicity, whatever gender or sexual orientation. Clue aims to be welcoming and useful to you regardless of your educational attainment, social status, or physical abilities. We know there is work to do before we fully achieve this, but it is our dream that whichever life stage you are in, whatever your specific interest or challenge, Clue will empower you to understand your body and live in tune with its rhythms. That through data-driven insights we can support you in understanding how you are special, and that you are not alone.

We all have a cycle in common, but observing the tides within is the most intimate act of attention. Nobody’s patterns are identical: Nature has foreseen so much natural, healthy variation that even the word “normal” is misleading, and we avoid it.

On the other hand, idealized, standardized Womanhood has been a box we’ve lived in for all of recorded history, with resulting contortions of individual liberty and integrity. Deviations from such norms have been seen as sins to be punished. Some of us have had a choice about whether or not to conform to a particular ‘ideal’; others haven’t. Both conditions leave scars on individual psychies, and on our inherited cultures.

Women and girls and all people with cycles have been kept back by shame and ignorance about their bodies. Everyone with a cycle shares some of this legacy, but some groups have suffered additional hardship, oppression or exclusion. Pursuing a healthy, shame-free life is the right of every human being, and we recognize that some people face a harder path. To these people, we hope to extend a particularly warm welcome. Clue has come a long way since its beginnings as a period tracker. The vision always was, and remains, to keep introducing new features that will help women and people with cycles understand their different life-stages. These needs are not the same for everyone, and so our goal is to keep enhancing Clue until it truly serves everybody who menstruates.

At the heart of Clue’s mission is a belief that if we can learn to see our bodies more clearly, we will recognize the truths we learn as both beautiful and empowering.

So: let’s always remember what unites us. Making progress on our individual and collective elevation through knowledge is in our own hands now. And let us remember that if anyone’s cycle is not honored equally, we have more work to do.

PS — to all of those brave people who work on this mission but who do not have a cycle: Clue salutes your dedication to our common humanity. Your interest and compassion are inspirational.