By Cindy Garcia
Echoing the ’90s feminist punk movement called Riot grrrl, Shopgrrrl is empowering women on campus in a more unconventional setting — the woodshop.
Shopgrrrl, which started this semester, is a skill-share and meet-up for University of Iowa Studio Arts students. The community is centered on the major due to safety and liability stipulations that come with using the woodshop.
Printmaking M.F.A. candidate Rachel Kauff sparked the idea. Anna Haglin, another printmaking M.F.A. candidate, helped bring the idea to fruition.
“Last year, some of the less-experienced ladies kept asking when she would be in the woodshop — that’s when we preferred to be in there. We knew she would never judge our [lack of] experience,” Haglin wrote in an email.
Haglin said the level of interest in the organization surprised both women, meaning there is an actual need for it.
“It’s hard to hear alumni-friends say they wish this had existed before,” Haglin said. “That means that some really talented ladies could’ve used some woodshop love.”
Kauff said the group originally used the language “female-identified students.” Now they are amending that.
“We really think of it as for anyone who feels like their opportunities to learn [woodworking] skills have been hampered by our cultural ideas of who belongs where,” Kauff said. “I think for the most part that’s women, but we’re not exclusive.”
Many female students had told Kauff they never used the woodshop and even feared it. In this way, Kauff said, woodshops can be compared to weight rooms at the gym.
“It’s mostly guys, and there’s like this other thing going on where it’s clearly not a space that is welcoming to you as a women,” Kauff said, noting that the UI woodshop is actually very supportive.
Kauff and Haglin said they want the group to be a place of collaboration.
In their prior meetings, Kauff said, members talked about what they knew how to do, what they wanted to learn, and what projects they were working on. Then they helped each other use tools and create different woodworks.
“We just want to strengthen the comfort-level women have in woodshops,” Haglin wrote.
Kellie Fredette, a graphic design major, has been in the woodshop before but only for required safety training. She said she isn’t comfortable with the woodshop.
“I think if I had to spend more time in there, I could definitely see that being helpful,” she said.
Kauff said she is looking for more ways to spread the word about Shopgrrrl, but the experience has been rewarding nonetheless.
“All the Shopgrrrls are really excited to be learning things, and it’s super empowering. It’s great,” Kauff said.
