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In this quarter’s Philosophy Magazine, there is an article asking Where Are All the Women?  Whilst there are roughly even numbers of men and women studying philosophy at undergraduate level, that number begins to have a male bias at MA level, and more so at PhD level, leading to only 18% of women to men ratio on academic staff, including full and part-time lecturing.   The article posits a few theories of why this might be, and in the process of discussion the point was raised that philosophy at a more advanced level is much more aggressive, with the audience actively prepared to shred a lecturer’s hypotheses and disprove the argument. 

This combative approach suddenly brought to mind a hen weekend I went on about 8 years ago.  A group of about 16 women, ranging in age from late teens to me, the eldest at 39, turned up at a historic house and stayed in several of their beautiful cottages for the weekend.  One of our various activities was Paintball.  I know more about paintball now because my son, now 20, is an avid paintballer, playing in several leagues at quite an advanced level, and it’s really a strategy game as well as physical and ‘hard’. 

When we turned up at the paintball site, we were met by two strapping lads in their early twenties who confessed to us that they’d never had an all-female paintball party before.  They’d dealt with mixed groups of school children, executives on team-building exercises, and lots of all-male groups, but never all women.  What transpired was really interesting from a philosophical and psychological viewpoint. 

We were split up into our teams and told the objective.  We had our little team talks and worked out our tactics, then went out to begin the game.  I already knew that when paintballs hit you they hurt, so I was prepared to be bruised, and the lads told us that they would sting and you’d know you’d been hit.  The first game commenced. 

I’m not an aggressive or confrontational person and attack is not something that comes naturally to me, so I elected to guard our flag and defend it against all comers, and I was quite good at that, staying in hiding, and positioning myself to get a great overall view so that I could fire at anyone coming close to our flag.  Another woman, whose day-job was a city trader, was the natural leader – she was assertive, quick to assess situations and deploy her troops, but the rest of the foot-soldiers – the cannon fodder, if you like – were not so keen to put themselves in the line of fire.  The game must have been going for all of five minutes, and you could see most people trying to keep out of firing range and working their way round to behind enemy lines on both sides.  Then one of the women decided this was pussy-footing around and she charged.  I can’t remember now which side she was on, and it really didn’t matter, because she got well and truly hammered, fired upon by several people, and she yelped and fell over.  That’s when the difference between the sexes was most apparent. 

She was obviously hurt, and lay clutching her leg and her arm.  There was a few seconds total silence, then everyone came out of hiding, rushing up to her and asking if she was alright, where had she been hit, did she need help, etc…  Looking back, it was amazing.  Regardless of competition, the overriding reaction was one of empathy, of wanting to help, of wanting to co-operate to solve a situation. 

The paintball guys were incredulous, and somewhat dismayed, I think.  They had to rethink their whole strategy of how to set the games because the underlying primal competition element and ‘do or die’ mindset that features in the male and mixed games was totally inappropriate for our all-female group.  Obviously, if we had been trained as a team, with a specific objective and strong enough incentive, this wouldn’t have happened, but I was proud to be part of a bunch of women whose first thoughts were to help each other, regardless of which side anyone was on. 

So, in reading about the aggressive approach of some branches of philosophy that seems to put many women off progressing further, I am not surprised.  If the profession of philosophy adopts co-operation strategies rather than combative strategies, then they might see a different result, and be the richer (philosophically speaking) for it. 

You know how there sometimes seems to be a time when many things relating to the same subject seem to slot into place – whether it is a political mood such as we saw in the US and in the UK and elsewhere during this recession, or a vogue for an artform such as glass or ceramics where they suddenly become more popular with the general public – well, it seems to me that textiles are currently enjoying a rise in fortune, and along with that, jacquard weaving.

I know I’m biased, but there seems to be a resurgence of interest in this creative mode of weaving, largely due to the increased and cheaper availability of computerised jacquard looms suitable for study in university or the private studio.  Jacquard weaving has more of a presence now in conference topics and exhibitions and in textiles courses at university and this leads directly to increased interest in past techniques, historic  equipment and contemporary interpretation.

I find it really interesting and exciting to be involved in jacquard weaving.  My particular take isn’t a traditional one, although I use old looms and employ historic techniques of cutting cards, and lacing the cards together.  I find that having to use these old techniques has taught me so much about designing successfully for jacquard, especially as my looms only have small repeat sizes and different methods of repeat.  This is where you miss out if you do everything by computer.  That ‘up close and personal’ method of creating a mise-en-carte and ensuring it is going to repeat correctly, and working it so that you can use the same mise-en-carte to be able to cut several different versions of the same design, is something that just using the computer with a non-repeating design page will never give you. 

The possibilities of the non-repeating huge hook potential of some of the computerised hand jacquard looms is very exciting, but you can learn so much from having to keep within certain boundaries.  You can push those boundaries to the very limits and then some!  Sometimes unlimited choice is too much and you need to reduce your focus so that you can develop skills and knowledge. 

This is being brought home to me particularly at the moment as I have a student from New Zealand with me who is firstly learning with me, and then will be developing her skills further with Vibeke Vestby at the ETN conference workshops in July in Linz.  Agnes Hauptli is an experienced weaver but she has never woven on jacquards before, and studying on my sample hand-jacquards and visiting Macclesfield Silk Museum and Paradise Mill has given her an understanding that she just wouldn’t have had if she had learnt purely on a computerised hand jacquard loom. 

With conferences such as the ETN conference in July, with its emphasis on education and exhibition of jacquard work, as well as the interesting conference on jacquard held in North Carolina in January this year, jacquard is enjoying a well-deserved place in the sun.  How long it lasts is anyone’s guess, but whilst it is here, museums are set to benefit as well.  Museums such as Macclesfield Silk Museum, Whitchurch Silk Museum, Tilburg Textile Museum, and many others are wonderful centres of heritage equipment who are working with existing practitioners and new designers to make their museums relevant to today’s visitor as well as keeping alive the traditional skills that are in grave danger of disappearing. 

There is room for both computerised jacquard looms and the old traditional ways of doing things.  For me, creating a mise-en-carte, cutting and lacing my cards, whilst occasionally frustrating in the length of time it takes, is also a way of feeling connected to the weavers of the past, and elsewhere in the world.  It is a way of checking, double-checking and confirming that the design decisions I’ve made are good ones and of understanding deeply the main fundamentals of jacquard weaving.  With the computerised looms, there is increased accessibility for people from non-textile and non-weaving backgrounds. 

The computer age has enabled its technological predecessor to take centre stage again.  Long may it continue!!