[hackerspaces] Women in Makerspaces

Fri Jan 18 00:43:35 CET 2013

Lyra++ 

-- 
Al Billings
http://www.openbuddha.com
http://makehacklearn.org

On Thursday, January 17, 2013 at 3:41 PM, rachel lyra hospodar wrote:

> It might be an artifact of your social position in Amerika, Mr. Joyce, 
> as a white cismale who presents heteronormatively, that you believe 
> 'being nice' carries no added cost.
> 
> Or it's an artifact of my position that any dissent is automatically 
> regarded as socially unacceptable - since women are always supposed to 
> 'be nice' and in fact in professional settings are statistically more 
> frequently punished, reprimanded, and fired for displaying the same 
> 'assertive' behaviors which are rewarded in men.
> 
> When I find myself surrounded by people who evidence an informed respect 
> and understanding for me, my people, and the enormity of our oppression, 
> i find it
> 
> so
> 
> much
> 
> easier
> 
> to be nice.
> 
> Yes, in general, I think people should be nice. Should women who are 
> being spoken to condescendingly be nice? How nice? How about people of 
> color who are being spoken to in a racist manner? How about trans 
> people being subject to hate speech? Where is the line?
> 
> I think *you* should be nice, because Amerika has heard plenty of your 
> flavor of truth. I think I should be honest.
> 
> R.
> 
> On 1/17/2013 2:51 PM, Matt Joyce 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 (mailto: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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> > 
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