RLadies+ is a worldwide organization whose mission is to promote gender diversity in the R community.
The R community suffers from an under-representation of minority genders — including but not limited to cis/trans women, trans men, non-binary, genderqueer, and agender individuals — in every role and area of participation, whether as leaders, package developers, conference speakers, educators, or users (see recent stats ).
As a diversity initiative, RLadies+ works to achieve proportionate representation by encouraging, inspiring, and empowering people of genders currently under-represented in the R community. Our primary focus is supporting minority gender R enthusiasts to reach their programming potential — through a collaborative global network of R leaders, mentors, learners, and developers that facilitates individual and collective progress worldwide.
Photo: Bruno AzizaGabriela de Queiroz founded RLadies+ on October 1, 2012. She had been attending meetups and learning for free, and wanted to give something back. The first meetup was held in San Francisco, California.
In the following years, two more chapters started: Twin Cities and Taipei. RLadies+ London launched in March 2016 — the fourth chapter, and the one that would spark something larger.
Each chapter had been running independently, but at useR! 2016 the San Francisco and London groups met, and the gap between what was possible alone versus together became obvious. After the conference, Gabriela de Queiroz and Erin LeDell (RLadies+ San Francisco), alongside Chiin-Rui Tan, Alice Daish, Hannah Frick, Rachel Kirkham, Claudia Vitolo (RLadies+ London), and Heather Turner applied for an R-Consortium grant to support and encourage the global expansion of the organisation . The grant was awarded in September 2016. RLadies+ Global was born.
Since then, the community has grown to 200+ chapters across 60+ countries with 100,000+ members — built and maintained by the organisers and members who write, teach, code, and show up for each other every day.
R-Ladies has always aimed to serve all minority genders — including cis/trans women, trans men, non-binary, genderqueer, and agender individuals. But community members told us that not everyone the organization exists to support felt seen in the name “R-Ladies”.
In April 2024, the Global Leadership Team opened a public GitHub discussion
to address this, inviting the community to weigh in on a proposed rebrand to R-Ladies+.
The discussion ran through November 2024, with moderators from the global community facilitating a structured, inclusive conversation.
Members considered a full name change, but ultimately there was no consensus on an alternative — particularly one that would be meaningful across all language contexts for a global organization.
The Leadership Team unanimously decided to move forward with RLadies+: the + signals broader inclusivity while preserving the well-established identity that chapters and members around the world have built over more than a decade.
The rebranding was announced in March 2025 and launched in 2026, with a full visual identity — logo, brand manual, templates, and imagery — created in collaboration with Science Graphic Design .
