Woodworking and Women
- on 11.17.08
- Woodworking and Women
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I have always been a proponent of getting more women involved in woodworking. Women are just as skilled and artistic as their male counter parts. Now, I am not smart enough to debate whether it’s an issue of genetics or upbringing or social pressures. But maybe it’s just a matter of women not knowing where to go to get started.
I know as a long time woodworker, it is hard for me to find relevant information on new techniques or tools. Sure there is a lot of information, but a lot of it is either rhetoric or condescending. When I find a good book, I treasure it and pass it on to others, the name not the book. With that thought in mind, I have been on the look out for a serious book on woodworking that is nether full of rhetoric or written in a condescending nature.
Well I think I may have found one. Woodworking 101 for Women: A Complete Guide: How to Speak the Language, Buy the Tools & Build Fabulous Furniture from Start to Finish
have been very positive, surprisingly, some from men who had purchased the book for themselves. One of the reviews I found most interesting was from a guy, who says if it’s good enough for a women then men should use it too.
Does the book make a new female woodworker a master craftsman, of course not, no book can do that. What it can do is explain some of the technical jargon that is part of the woodworking world, and may give that one women who has the next great design idea, enough confidence to try it.
If there was one issue I could take with the book, it is that some of the projects maybe beyond the ability of a new woodworker. Cutting interlocking dovetails and through mortises may not be for the novice woodworker, female or male. I don’t want anyone interested in woodworking to get turned off when just started because their first project was too difficult. But that aside, the projects are first class, the designs refreshing and the information great. I think this is a keeper for all woodworkers, not just the women.
