“Excited to crash the party”: Girls self-author their identities as makers in a girls-only design/build space

Abstract

ABSTRACT This ethnographic study examines a girls-only summer maker program designed to empower girls who learned to use power tools to build their own designs. Drawing from theories of identity construction within figured worlds, the article shows how girls in the program authored themselves into roles that run counter to patriarchal notions of making and femininity. Illustrative examples show how girls played with gender presentation, produced gender-bending artifacts that became identity resources, and learned to collectively navigate traditionally male spaces. The article concludes with implications for the design of equitable maker learning environments.