By Frances
To celebrate International Women’s Day on Sunday 8th March 2019, Library Manager Vicky and I ran a ‘build your own synth’ workshop for girls aged between ten and sixteen in the children’s library at Jubilee. It was one of the most enjoyable days I’ve ever had in a workplace.
However, my initial response to working on this event had been a nagging sense of self-doubt. Thoughts like: “I know nothing about synths or circuit boards; I’m not that tech-savvy; and I’m the wrong person for the job”, ran through my head. I even suggested a male colleague, who, being a musician like Vicky, would “obviously” be much better at this than me!
Then Vicky and I started talking about the gender gap in STEM* subjects at school and university, and how girls still tend to take fewer of these subjects despite studies showing there is little to no difference in boys’ and girls’ average ability. In fact, research shows quite the opposite, that whilst girls tend to think these subjects are not for them, they routinely outperform boys in exams in STEM subjects. It is, then, clearly a lack of belief rather than any shortage of ability that is holding many young women back from studying these subjects at university and/or pursuing careers in STEM occupations. Careers in which women remain woefully underrepresented.
Being a proud feminist, this made me think more deeply about why this is. If we know it isn’t true that boys are inherently better at STEM subjects than girls, why are they still largely perceived as male domains? And why is the abiding stereotype of the synth-building, electronic musician a male tech-savvy geek? Although there has been a more recent acknowledgement of female synthesizer pioneers, and a celebration of women working in the contemporary field of electronic music, production and studio sound engineering stubbornly remain male-dominated fields.
Of course, there is no simple way to explain gender inequality or the construction of a binary understanding of gender, but we do know that the lessons we are taught from an early age run deep. So much so that boys and girls unconsciously internalise gender norms and behave accordingly. To address this conditioning and to attract more young women to study STEM subjects at university, we need to collectively tackle the stereotypes that all genders are exposed to early on. Stereotypes which can and do impact on career aspirations, or lack of them, particularly in STEM fields.
So, with all this in mind it was clear to me that two women running this workshop for girls on International Women’s Day was entirely the point! Not my gendered lack of confidence, or simple lack of ability in the synth-building department. It was about having a go, and in the process attempting to empower young girls to have a go as well.
To prepare for the workshop, Vicky and I practised putting one of the DIY synth kits together so that on the day we could talk the girls through the steps with confidence. This was enjoyable in itself because I quickly realised there was no expert electronic knowledge required, simply an ability to concentrate and focus methodically on the steps one by one. Every step of the build has to be done correctly otherwise the synth won’t work at the end, and once we had correctly assembled ours it was so rewarding and exciting to play with the sounds it generated.
On the day of the workshop itself all twelve places were filled, and we arranged three tables around a screen so that everybody could see the instructions, which included written text and diagrams. Vicky compiled a brilliant experimental electronic playlist by synth-empowered women to quietly play in the background (and further inspire the girls). With tracks by artists like Delia Derbyshire, who arranged the original theme music to the TV series, Dr Who, when she worked at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in the 1960s (although it was years before she got credited). As well as Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, a contemporary composer, performer and producer, who makes electronic music with a very rare synth called a Buchla.
With some hands-on assistance from myself and Vicky, the girls built these sound-generating circuits using breadboards and components like chips, resistors, capacitors, knobs etc., but luckily no soldering was required. Once correctly assembled the synth could be modified to create different kinds of noises, and all participants got to take their synth circuit home with them to further experiment.
Throughout the process it was interesting to notice, without any judgement, the differences between the girls who were genuinely absorbed and able to concentrate on every single step of the build, and those who lost interest pretty quickly and kept asking for help. Not because they couldn’t do it, but more because they didn’t appear to enjoy the level of sustained focus it required. Fiddling around with intricate breadboards certainly isn’t for everybody, including me most of the time. Which highlighted the fact that being good at electronics and engineering has absolutely nothing to do with gender and everything to do with individual personality type and levels of interest.
Not only was this event thoroughly enjoyable it also felt positive in a political sense, and we received some fantastic feedback. This included a Facebook post thanking us with a video of one of the girls further experimenting with her synth, using it to teach her younger sisters about the effect sound waves have on salt. This was a perfect ending to a brilliant day at work in the library.
* (STEM subjects are Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics).
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