Hands On, Hands Off: Gendered Access in Crafting and Electronics Practices

Abstract

The Maker movement promotes hands-on making, including crafts, robotics, and computing. The movement’s potential to transform education rests in our ability to address notable gender disparities, particularly in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields. E-textiles—the first female-dominated computing community—provide inspiration for overcoming long-standing cultural divides in classrooms. Analysis of children’s use of e-textiles reveals that materials like needles, fabric, and conductive thread rupture traditional gender scripts around electronics and implicitly gives girls hands-on access and leadership roles. This reconceptualization of cultural divides as sets of tacitly accepted practices rooted in gendered histories has implications for reconceptualizing traditionally male-dominated areas of schooling.