I was invited to post over at Medium from my perspective as a woman maker and entrepreneur. I wrote a bit on Flourishing in the Maker Community.
As a woman, I am often called to tell what it it is like to be a woman in my field, or to provide advice on how to get young women interested in technology. I’d much rather share the amazing things people are doing with our products. I’d much rather help someone learning about electronics to get over a hurdle to the point they are successful with a project. And I’d much rather spend my time working on projects that in their own way, help young women and men to flourish and learn.
Thank you. Thank you for being a sane (well, for a mad scientist) person who prefers to lead with something other than, “Hi, I’m a girl” and just gets to the fun stuff. This – and my daughter verifies this – is exactly the sort of approach that will get society past the silliness and as many young minds as possible making amazing things, whatever their gender. Make no mistake: she’s as joyfully girly as you please. She just has not the faintest notion it should have a thing to do with her ability to make awesome stuff. And so it doesn’t.
When questions starting with “So, as a woman…” are looked at by all onlookers as stupid and demeaning to pretty much everyone, at that point we’ll have the best things happening.
Come to think of it, that might be the best way to get there.