Last year we were approached about having a women's night. Initially
I was a bit indignant at a perceived implication that our shop was
not women-friendly, because we've been careful to draft policies and
to make sure people in the shop behave themselves. But as the
dialogue continued I realized that regardless of how "friendly" we
thought ourselves to be, there indeed were women that thought our
shop to be a bit intimidating.
So it was agreed to try it out, though we did not have the volunteer
resources to just start opening extra evenings, so we said "if you
think there's a need for this then you have to make it happen". We
did not yet have a woman on staff (as a trained mechanic), so I
volunteered to open the shop and keep out of their way when they did
the first two sessions. Those were not well-attended, but it was
also late in the season. A recent one had 12 people out, so that was
good and come Spring (ok, it's Spring now but once this snow all
melts) we're looking at making this at least a monthly thing to
start, and move to weekly if there is enough demand.
One happy benefit is that one of the women who has been organizing
this is now on her way to becoming our first female Head Mechanic!
So she'll be able to take over completely and women's night will
truly only have women involved. Also, one of the recent attendees
has been coming in as a regular volunteer. We'd like to think that
having more women in the shop will balance things out and eliminate
the need for a separate evening, but until societal attitudes change
we have to accept that there will be a demand. I like to think we'll
get there, some day...
As for a men-only night, well, it was observed when talking about a
women's night that there are strong and confident women who won't let
any men intimidate them, but there are also quiet, meek guys who
could be equally intimidated by our shop. No answer for that, aside
from observing that coming into a slightly chaotic community-based
endeavour such as ours could be tougher for Introverts in general.
Mark Rehder - Director http://re-cycles.ca