[hackerspaces] Tips and Tricks (Was Women in Makerspaces)

[Lokkju Brennr]

Yes, you missed the assumptions in your reasoning.  They (whichever they
you are dealing with) don't come because there is little to nothing to keep
them attracted.  From musicians to artists, or *any* group you choose,
representatives of that group have shared interests, and may have shared
biases.  Those interests and biases may or may not intersect with the
interests of the local hackerspace/makerspace/etc - if they don't, then
there is no reason for them to attend in the first place.
Which then leads me to ask...  why do some people find it so important that
the spaces shift to be more interesting/bias confirming towards women (or
minorities, etc), rather than attacking the problem at it's source - the
interests and biases of the target group.

Loki



On Fri, Jan 18, 2013 at 12:53 PM, Bill French <william.french at gmail.com>wrote:

> The issue we're trying to tackle, though, is that the opportunity to
> listen and dialog doesn't arise.  They just don't come back, or don't come
> at all.
>
> Or, how can we be more proactive?
>
> What we've got so far:
> 1. Clear anti-harassment policy and process for handling issues
> 2. Clean bathrooms
> 3. Broader marketing
>
> Did I miss anything?
>
> On Fri, Jan 18, 2013 at 12:32 PM, <discuss-request at lists.hackerspaces.org>wrote:
>
>> Women, like men, are people.  When a person has a problem that they can't
>> handle on their own, they first want to share that with other people, be
>> listened to, understood, and have their problem validated.  It doesn't
>> matter if the problem is "Why is Joe's shit left out all over the tables?"
>> or "Why is Joe stalking me on OkCupid?".  That's the first step.  Listen
>> to
>> the problem, confirm that you understand what it is, and don't fob it off
>> as a non-problem just because it's not a problem for you or even for the
>> majority of your community.
>>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Discuss mailing list
> Discuss at lists.hackerspaces.org
> http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.hackerspaces.org/pipermail/discuss/attachments/20130118/dc7cb0b7/attachment.html>