“I don’t need to learn this, my husband can do it for me”
“Can you slow down a bit, my dumb female brain can’t keep up”
These are real quotes from real people I’ve come across while working within makerspaces and educational technology. While these are outlier examples, the sentiment rings a little true for each of us. We all set expectations for ourselves and believe we cannot surpass them without great effort or embarrassment.
Much of these stereotypes and pressures come from growing up. If we are told something is true, directly or indirectly, it’s hard to shake those ingrained beliefs.
Last year, my journey in co-founding Spark Girlz began. After winning the grand final Techstars Startup weekend event, Andrea and I wanted to turn the company into something real.
For me, my personal challenge from here was learning Printed Circuit Board (PCB) design skills. If I wanted to build a STEM product for little girls, designing PCBs that looked fun, engaging and worked well was key in this plan. While I didn’t say it at the time, I wasn’t sure I had the right stuff to learn it. I haven’t studied electrical engineering, what business have I got doing this? My first weekend deep dive into figuring it out just made me realise how much more I had to learn. I couldn’t see how deep the water was. The second weekend was more frustrating. I had picked a software but had no idea how to draw an industry standard schematic. I had put so much effort in and seemed to be getting nowhere.
The third weekend, I kept trying. Suddenly, it all clicked and made sense. My sketches materialised on screen in the stark colours of KiCAD software.
Just this week, the finished PCB arrived in the mail, and it works. What a relief, and a great feeling of accomplishment. We’ve got a long way to go, but this feeling is exactly what I want Spark Girlz to give young girls.
We want to infiltrate the pink aisle classics and make products that teach key skills in electronics and circuit building that surprise and delight.
Learning new skills is tough, but you’ve got to fail hard and fail fast, and keep on trying. It’s easier if you get some of that done when you’re a kid, and much more fun to build cool things along the way.
Another huge part of changing the way we think is role models. If someone we look up to is just like us, it gives us something to aspire to. Each Spark Girlz kit will feature a woman in science, technology, engineering or mathematics careers, the real change makers in our current world in a collectable, elegant set.
Let’s not put boundaries on what we can do. Happy International Women’s Day.
To follow our Spark Girlz journey, sign up to our mailing list and visit www.sparkgirlz.com.