[hackerspaces] How Do You Bring In Women?

[Lokkju Brennr]

Now, listen to yourself:

It seems like many day spas get men through the doors but scare them
off. The SalonBar has a slightly different problem - men simply never show
up in the first place!

Of the 750+ people who have come through our doors, perhaps ten have been
men. I'm wondering how to increase this.

I can't figure out why - our marketing mix of Twitter, Meetup organic
traffic, flyer campaigns, word-of-mouth, and presenting at relevant
Meetups/collectives have worked wonders, but are only bringing in females.
None of these are really female-oriented, which makes the results odd.

We run two open houses a week, sell off-the-shelf and custom at home
personal care kits, have two beginner/intermediate classes on hair, nail,
skin, etc care per month, and have a social/games night every month. Our
members do nails, hair, massage, makeup, skincare, etc. Interest and
attendance have been at an all-time high, but again, all female.

So, I'm wondering what the SalonBar needs to do to get a better balance.
Are there events/classes that attract more men? What marketing works/turns
off men? Might our location in a busy mall be scaring boys away? Is this
even a problem?

Men of the salon universe, how did you find out about your current space?
What event brought you in?

For what it's worth, our 'stickiness' with men may even be better than
women. Of those ~10 men who've shown up, one is a member and two are
diehard class and open-house addicts who come back very often. Almost all
of our members are married or in committed relationships; either way, we're
a pretty classy and non-creeper bunch that I can't see scaring anyone away.

It must be awkward being the only man at a salon, and I'd like to get a
critical mass to make anyone, no matter what demographic, more comfortable.



On Fri, Jan 18, 2013 at 1:00 PM, Zack Freedman <magikazoc at gmail.com> wrote:

> It seems like many hackerspaces get women through the doors but scare them
> off. The MakerBar has a slightly different problem - women simply never
> show up in the first place!
>
> Of the 750+ people who have come through our doors, perhaps ten have been
> women. I'm wondering how to increase this.
>
> I can't figure out why - our marketing mix of Twitter, Meetup organic
> traffic, flyer campaigns, word-of-mouth, and presenting at relevant
> Meetups/collectives have worked wonders, but are only bringing in dudes.
> None of these are really male-oriented, which makes the results odd.
>
> We run two open houses a week, sell off-the-shelf and custom soldering
> kits, have two beginner/intermediate classes on Arduino, RasPi, etc per
> month, and have a social/games night every month. Our members do
> programming, woodworking, electronics, soft circuits, circuit bending, etc.
> Interest and attendance have been at an all-time high, but again, all male.
>
> So, I'm wondering what the MakerBar needs to do to get a better balance.
> Are there events/classes that attract more women? What marketing
> works/turns off women? Might our location in a converted warehouse be
> scaring girls away? Is this even a problem?
>
> Women of the hackerspace universe, how did you find out about your current
> space? What event brought you in?
>
> For what it's worth, our 'stickiness' with women may even be better than
> men. Of those ~10 women who've shown up, one is a member and two are
> diehard class and open-house addicts who come back very often. Almost all
> of our members are married or in committed relationships; either way, we're
> a pretty classy and non-creeper bunch that I can't see scaring anyone away.
>
> It must be awkward being the only girl at a space, and I'd like to get a
> critical mass to make anyone, no matter what demographic, more comfortable.
> --
> Zack Freedman // MakerBar // Hardware Hacker from the Near Future
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Discuss mailing list
> Discuss at lists.hackerspaces.org
> http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>
>
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