We Are Not All Makers
Tara Whelan · 2018
This paper draws from a critical examination of media and literature surrounding the maker movement, and interviews with 10 women engaged in maker activities. It aims to explore the barriers to women's participation in the maker movement and, in particular, the barriers to women's adoption of a maker identity. Three phenomena are discussed; firstly the problematic disjunct between inclusivity of maker rhetoric and hierarchies in maker practice. Secondly, how the purported eclecticism of materials and techniques in the maker movement may actually lessen the likelihood of women self-identifying as makers. Thirdly, how women tend to have a qualitatively different approach to technological practice as compared to their male peers and the subtle ways in which this runs counter to normative maker values. I suggest that minimising the identity-centric approach of the maker movement may help to ameliorate these barriers, but ultimately, more research must be undertaken to verify or challenge the conclusions drawn here.