[hackerspaces] Women in Makerspaces

[Bilal Ghalib]

I love you Matt. Also everyone else on this thread, you're cool too ;D
+BG


On Thu, Jan 17, 2013 at 2:51 PM, Matt Joyce <matt at nycresistor.com> wrote:

> Cost nothing to be nice to each other.
>
> On Thu, Jan 17, 2013 at 2:46 PM, rachel lyra hospodar
> <rachelyra at gmail.com> wrote:
> > "It could be that she host a class about e-textiles or whatever it is
> > females like to talk about."
> >
> > *headdesk*
> >
> > protip - sometimes women focus on the textile stuff *because* then they
> can
> > be in a group that is at least 15% women.  The Feminist Hacker Hive that
> > meets up at noisebridge has found that there is a tipping point - if a
> > critical mass of women are present in conversation, they don't get
> > interrupted by clueless neanderthal types.
> >
> > I used to make a living as a carpenter, welder, and construction
> manager.  I
> > left that work because of gender and age based disrespect.
> >
> > I sniffed around the edges of Silicon Valley but didn't dive in for the
> same
> > reasons.  I do work in soft circuitry now, but it's not because rigid
> > circuits are too difficult.  It's a brute-force solution designed to
> avoid
> > people as condescending as you, david.
> >
> > If the tech industry truly wants to innovate on things like interface we
> > could do with re-examining how people interact, and what we are really
> > seeking.  To do that, though, we have to change the culture.
> >
> > R.
> >
> >
> > On 1/17/2013 8:26 AM, David Powell wrote:
> >>
> >> At Baltimore Hackerspace we have been 100% male until last month. We had
> >> the occasional Female come through the door but for whatever reason they
> >> never come back. We now have exactly 1 female member and about 20 male
> >> members. The males ALWAYS go out of their way to make the place more
> >> female friendly. For example we try hard not to use inappropriate
> >> language around females. Whenever they show a desire to learn something
> >> we stop what we are doing and teach them whatever it is they want to
> >> know. At the end of the night when they are leaving we always have
> >> someone walk them to their car so they feel safe.
> >>
> >> I highly encourage all members of our space no matter what their gender
> >> is to make it their own. For example we have Programmers, Electronic
> >> Engineers, Mechanical Engineers, Accountants, Students, etc. and you can
> >> pick anyone person from any of those backgrounds and they could tell you
> >> a subject that they just don't care about. So if a programmer wants more
> >> programmers to talk to and hang out with I encourage them to send out a
> >> few e-mails and become more active online in order to help find more
> >> people interested in programming. I don't however expect the mechanical
> >> engineers to go find programmers if they have no interest in learning to
> >> program.
> >>
> >> I would say the same should be true with the female/male issue. If a
> >> hackerspace has one female and she wants more females in the hackerspace
> >> then she should start a campaign to find more females. It could be that
> >> she host a class about e-textiles or whatever it is females like to talk
> >> about.
> >>
> >> If a female in the hackerspace wants to be on our board I would gladly
> >> accept them but I would hold them to the same standards as I hold
> >> everyone. As a board member you are "Responsible" for the future of the
> >> hackerspace. This means a lot of work that really sucks. For us it is
> >> not just making decisions but actually getting the work done. For
> >> example we need brochures made to hand out to people who are coming
> >> through our door for the first time and at special events. Ok we voted
> >> that we need those. Now what? Well, someone has to actually design and
> >> make the things. But we don't have a budget to just pay a designer. So
> >> the person in charge of making it happen has to find someone with the
> >> talent to make it happen or figure out how to do it themselves. "But I
> >> just want to hack" is usually what most people say. Nobody wants to
> >> actually do anything the is important. They want to do what is fun at
> >> the time.
> >>
> >> As the president I spend about 40 hours a week making sure the finances
> >> are straight, making sure our social media is up to date, sending out
> >> request to try and get us stuff that we can't afford, making sure the
> >> place is clean for the next wave of new people who come through the
> >> door, making sure the projector works for the classes we host, making
> >> sure the refrigerator gets stocked with soda. I could keep going.
> >>
> >> My point is it does not matter what gender you are. It matters whether
> >> or not you actually do work which contributes to the future of the
> >> space. If you want more women then go find them. If you want more say in
> >> what is going on then offer to help take care of some of the task that
> >> need to be accomplished.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
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> >
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