Hi there,
I’m a researcher at the University of Sheffield and we’re looking into the reasons why women tend not to engage with the facilities offered by organisations like South London Makerspace to the same extent that men do.
This project is a partnership between the University and Access Space Sheffield; an organisation that you may be familiar with. Access Space provides a free, open access digital media lab and hackspace. This collaborative project aims to boost women’s engagement with Access Space’s facilities and, more generally, reveal practical, best practice examples on how to encourage women to participate in programmes that allow them to gain new skills in technology and manufacturing outside of the typical adult education environment.
We are looking to gain the input of the leaders and members of similar organisations. If you have any thoughts on this issue, I’d be extremely pleased to hear them. In particular, any insights on any of the following areas would be very helpful:
What is your experience of the gender balance in hackspaces & makerspaces?
How much of any gender imbalance do you think is genuinely women just being less interested than men, if at all?
Do you think this is an issue that spaces should put more explicit thought into??
In your experience, what sort of measures tend to improve the gender balance?
What sort of measures don’t help?
What benefits for the whole organisation and its membership do you think better inclusion might bring?
What is more important, focusing on initial appeal to women, retention of women members, or integration of diverse groups?
How can you encourage integration?
We’re also interested in looking at the inclusion of other minority and under-represented groups, so if you have any thoughts on this related issue, that would be great to hear about too.
Please feel free to respond on this thread or to contact me privately at jen dot lewis at sheffield dot ac dot uk if you do not wish to post a response publicly.
Any comments you make will contribute to a report which will be made available to Access Space and other Hackspaces. Your contribution may be quoted but will be treated anonymously; however, if you do not wish any comments to be included as quotes at all, please specify this with your response.
This research has been given ethical approval by the University of Sheffield.
Many thanks in anticipation,
Jen.