[hackerspaces] Safe Space Policies?

[Moritz]

On 01/27/2014 02:23 PM, Christie Dudley wrote:
> But that's not why the women I have talked to don't like to hang around
> hackerspaces. They don't like to hang around because they're *bored*.
> People don't talk to us/them or includes us in their conversations, even
> if we seem interested, except in a strange and smarmy sort of way where
> we can't really engage

This is not a women-specific problem. Personally, I don't think that is
a problem at all. I've walked into many hackerspaces, and wasn't
"included" in conversations, greeted, or anything. Sometimes you walk
in, hang around for many hours and nobody talks, especially not to you.
That's just how most people in hackerspaces are. They include friends in
their conversations, if any, and can't handle strangers that well. Most
of "us" can't. That's it, and nothing is going to change that. Sit down,
get your laptop out, do whatever. Feel at home. Don't see it as a
special problem of yours, and don't put it on people that simply are
introverted, and obviously have what you would call a "problem" talking
to people, and quite naturally it is stronger with people from the other
gender. Hey, they found their spot where they can meet with friends,
their alternative is hanging around alone at home in their parent's
basement. It's not a gender thing if you come from a completely
different background and rush in and expect people to iron with you.

> If you have the kind of establishment where you are concerned that the
> men there will behave inappropriately around women, then you have two
> problems.

Or none. I know females that are exactly the same.

--mo