Sprinkling Diversity: Hurdles on the Way to Inclusiveness in Makerspaces

Abstract

Although makerspaces are becoming more and more prevalent worldwide, users of these spaces are predominantly male. Having access to makerspaces provides the users of these spaces with communities to learn from and network in. It is therefore important to research the reasons behind male dominance in makerspaces, as well as possible solutions that can be designed to increase diversity in makerspace users by improving access to makerspaces for underrepresented groups (i.e., women, girls, queer, non-binary, transgender, and intersex people alike). This paper describes a workshop with experts in the areas of making and STEM activities for women and girls. This expert workshop was guided by the discussion of three utopian design fictions, and three dystopian design fictions, prepared by the researchers prior to the workshop. Based on discussions and mindmaps that followed from this expert workshop, we present considerations for inclusiveness in makerspaces, the use of design fictions in expert workshops, and the creation of women-only spaces for expert workshops.

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