The UK branch of the Men’s Sheds Association (UKMSA) recently appointed Caroline Ellis as its new CEO. As a former senior director of LGBT charity Stonewall, she is a curious choice to lead an organisation that was founded to provide meet-ups and social hubs for older men struggling with loneliness after retiring.
After all, Ellis doesn’t seem all that interested in the Men’s Sheds Association as, well, an association for men. This is hardly a surprise. In 2014, Ellis played a significant role in turning Stonewall from a gay-rights charity into a trans-rights lobby group. She now seems to be doing something similarly destructive for the UKMSA. Indeed, she has wasted no time in emphasising the importance of ‘inclusion’ and calling for mixed-sex and women’s sheds. This is despite the fact that the shed movement, which began in Australia in the 1980s, before making its way to Britain in the early 2010s, was always intended to be for men and men alone.
Even before Ellis’s arrival, the Men’s Sheds Association had been slowly diluting its single-sex status. After lobbying from women who also wanted to take up shedding as a hobby, several branches in the UK started permitting both sexes. Now, with a former Stonewall director at the helm of the national association, the shift away from its men-only nature looks set to gather pace.
But this is nothing to celebrate for men or women. Indeed, high-profile feminists responded critically to a recent BBC article on a Men’s Sheds branch in Loughborough, which had become mixed sex. Philosopher Kathleen Stock pointed out that Men’s Sheds ought to be for men, before quipping that there was no need for women to have broken the ‘plywood ceiling’. Sall Grover, creator of female-only app Giggle, also voiced her support for male-only spaces, as did former Tory MP Miriam Cates, to widespread agreement from women online.
A male member of the Loughborough Men in Sheds group admitted to the BBC that ‘there was apprehension’ about letting women and wives join, before adding that the men can ‘escape now and again [to the quiet room] and have a chat and weigh things up’.
Escape? Sir, blink twice if you need help. The quiet room in question is described as containing a single model trainset, and I can only hope it’s not as sad as it sounds. Regardless, it’s preposterous that the male members had to create a ‘space within the space’ to socialise among themselves.
Of course, it’s possible that male retirees view the admittance of women as an unequivocal good. Personally, knowing how many women feel uncomfortable with males in female-only spaces, yet keep their heads down for fear of seeming bigoted, I dare say men who are unhappy with the inverse experience feel the same pressure to keep schtum.
Some men have spoken up. Back in 2018, Jason Schroeder, the then boss of the Scottish branch of the charity, voiced his opposition to shed branches no longer being exclusively for men. ‘As soon as women get involved, the whole dynamic changes in the shed and the men’s behaviour changes’, he explained. ‘Some women are possibly perceiving this as some remnant patriarchal concept but it’s not.’
Indeed, the founding impulse behind the Men’s Sheds Association was not sexist. It was a desire to allow older men, struggling with isolation after retiring, to bond with other men over practical activities such as woodwork, metalwork, repair work and other projects. The charity’s slogan, ‘shoulder to shoulder’, reflects the way that many men prefer to communicate and bond in collaboration over a task. This differs from the ‘face to face’ way in which women tend to communicate and bond. It is perfectly legitimate for both sexes to seek out recreational spaces in which they can socialise in the way they feel most comfortable.
Allowing older men to associate in men-only spaces is hugely important. From middle-age onwards, the risk of depression and suicide increases in men, with social isolation constituting a major factor. A man who is alone or bereaved would benefit enormously from a space where he can simply make friends with other men.
There was a time when certain men-only social spaces served to exclude women from political power, certain careers and so on. In these cases, women gaining access to these places represented genuine progress. But that’s not what we’re talking about here. Men’s Sheds is not a cigar-and-brandy-swishing gentlemen’s club. It’s a social initiative that allows isolated men to form friendships with other men.
If women want to get involved with shedding, great. But what’s stopping them from setting up their own club? That’s what I, and any other fair-minded feminist, would ask.
Nina Welsch is a writer. visit her Substack here
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