Founded in 2005 by Robert Kaplin, Etsy has become the go-to online marketplace for all things handmade and vintage. Through Etsy, individual sellers can use the e-commerce site to sell anything and everything handmade or second hand. From art, food, quilts, knitted jumpers and second hand toys if it’s cute, knitted or has a bow on it, you can find it on Etsy. However beneath the ruffled curtains and necklaces in the shape of Oreo cookies, Etsy has come to represent something much larger. It is a key technological tool in the new wave feminism movement, encouraging a new generation of women to start their own businesses and make their own money. In this essay I will examine the new media methods that Etsy utilises to make selling online so accessible as well as the modern resurgence of popularity in handmade goods and old media crafts. I will then argue that these two movements have created a space online where women who may traditionally not have been able to work or earn an income have been able to empower themselves and become successful business owners from their homes. 

In November 2013 (the last time Etsy posted their monthly statistics online), $147.5 million of goods were sold via the online marketplace. In that same month 1,318,666 new members joined the Etsy community and 2.15 billion page views were recorded on the site (Traub). What makes Etsy stand out from other competitive online marketplaces is, of course, it’s focus on the homemade, however upon examining the interface of the website there are a number of features that show why Etsy is so appealing as a platform for business owners and why it has made the process of selling online so easy.

 As soon as you go the Etsy homepage, users are encouraged to sign up to in order to start browsing and buying goods. The sign up process is easy and requires no financial transactions upfront, they do not even ask for the details of a credit card of Paypal account. Once users are signed in, the Etsy homepage displays galleries of items that are ‘trending’ or centre around a certain theme such as ‘halloween’, ‘weddings’ or ‘gift ideas’. 

The interface (see image a) is clean and minimalist but with a feminine edge. The handpicked items from different stores displayed in these galleries all feature beautifully handmade goods and well photographed products. Users then have the option of searching for an item or a shop or browsing items by category. The category options give you an idea of the types of goods popular on Etsy; ‘art’, ‘home and living’, ‘craft supplies’ all focused around aesthetic pleasures and homespun delights. 

One thing that makes Etsy so attractive to sellers is the store front interface (see picture b). Once you have clicked on a  particular user or seller the site directs you to their personal Etsy page. The layout of the pages is beautiful, users are given the chance to upload their own header image, create categories displayed in the side bar detailing the types of items they are selling and each user has a box in the sidebar with information about the shop owner. What strikes you most is how professional Etsy makes everything look. Many of the people selling are extremely amateur however due to the layout, each individual sellers page could be it’s own professional e-commerce site. The layout and the design immediately provoke trust in the buyer. You do not feel as if you are buying from an amateur but from a proper online shop with beautiful handmade items. 

Etsy operates all their transactions through Paypal. Upon buying an item the user is redirected to Paypal where they can check out in a number of seconds with nothing but their Paypal login details. The seller never has to worry about handling the money, Etsy takes care of it all. The money is simply transfered from the buyer’s Paypal into the sellers Paypal and then the seller is sent the details of the order and the delivery address. This quick pay element of Etsy is a huge attraction for sellers. What discourages a lot of people from starting their own business is worry about how they will operate it financially; processing payments and figuring out how to handle the money once it’s been received. 

Another element of new media that makes Etsy so attractive to small business owners is photography. Jewellery designer Emma Mitchell owns an Etsy shop called Silver Pebble where she sells her handmade silver jewellery.  A necklace by Emma will cost on average $180 and to make each one costs Emma herself 50% of the selling price. Before Etsy, were Emma to have tried to sell her products she would have needed to sell them through a shop or a craft fair. This would mean making dozens of each product in the hope that they would sell. (3) For a lot of people setting up their own business it is financially impossible to make a large supply of their items before having sold them and there is also always the risk that the items won’t sell and you will make a loss. The development of photographic technology has meant most people have access to high definition photography and a way of putting it online. This means Emma has to only make one of her necklaces and can then go on to make each one individually as each new order comes in. Etsy offers customisable delivery times meaning the seller can let the user know that they will be making the product upon receiving the order. For small business owners who do not have a lot of seed money, this aspect of the online marketplace is extremely important and almost completely removes all the start up risks involved with creating a business. 

So how does Etsy relate to feminism? Well, for a long time feminism and crafts such as cooking, knitting and any other act seen as ‘women’s work’ were considered two opposing forces. During the second wave of feminism in conjunction with the civil rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s, feminists rejected so called ‘women’s work’ in order to try and claim equality and to balance women’s lives with their male counterparts. Women all over the world put down their needlework, put on their trouser suits and crafts became associated with stay at home mum’s and an old way of viewing women. (Offensend) However this very rejection of all things ‘girly’ goes against the idea that a central element to the feminist movement is choice. Feminism is about women having the freedom and equality to live the lives they choose without feeling dominated by men and the rejection of homely activities by second wave feminists exorcises this choice. (Offensend). The 1990’s saw an explosive resurgence of knitting among young women, often stated to be centred around feminist and Bust magazine editor Debbie Stoller’s book Stitch ’N Bitch: The Knitter’s Handbook. In this, Stoller argues that it is time to rethink the position that girls doing traditionally male activities is feminist but girls doing traditionally female activities is not. There were also similar movements dismissing cooking and baking as non liberated, oppressive activities. While the 90’s resurgence of all things girly was extremely popular it was also very criticized. It centred around the idea that women who were already working or had some sort of financial stability should take up knitting or cooking as a hobby and many commented that only women in some sort of privileged position have the option not to do activities like these as a necessity but for pleasure. (Gilley) 

This is where Etsy becomes relevent, new media has created a place where this reclamation of the handmade among feminists has stopped being simply a way to make a statement but an actual way for women to create businesses and empower themselves with their own income. In 2001 the media began to pick up on a growing trend regarding young women’s interests in knitting and crafting. The New York Times and other newspapers published profiles on young women, typically in their 20s of 30s, who support themselves by making and selling handcrafted items. A newspaper in Portland described it as a ‘craft phenomenon’, profiling 33 year old Susan Beal who supports herself by sewing, quilting and embroidering. When this movement first began most women were using craft fairs and independent boutiques to sell their goods, but with the development of Etsy most of them have relocated online. “In another era, I would have done this as a hobby, but the fact that I can earn my living with my creativity feels very feminist to me,” Beal says. “I don’t know if I would say it’s the new bra-burning, but I definitely think it’s a radical act…” (Stryker).

What the fight for equality for women has been known to dismiss is the real life complications of working for a lot of women. Many women have children and don’t want to go back to work in an office, or have children that are sick or disabled meaning they have to be home 24 hours a day. In 1998, feminist writers Judy Smith and Ellen Balka proposed the development of a Sex Role Impact statement that would be used just like the Environmental Impact Statement and would attempt to assess new technology on what the effect of it’s development would have on sex roles. The study involved seven questions that would need to be asked of every new technology by many public agencies before development decisions were made. The questions included statements such as ‘Would it broaden or restrict women’s traditional options?’ and ‘Would increase or limit women’s chances for economic self suffiencency?’. (Smith and Balka) Examining Etsy in terms of this study yealds overwhelmingly positive results. Historically, a site like Etsy might be viewed as an example of technology  that women would be expected to shy away from. Women are often seen as not being a part of the traditionally male dominated worlds of business and technology and Etsy embodies the two. However it is estimated that over 90% of Etsy users are women (Luckman). Etsy has become a symbol of third wave feminism. A place where women can choose to embrace ‘women’s work’ but transform it into ‘men’s work’. Women who would have traditionally had to stay at home looking after their children or are unable to work can now be seen all over the world, creating their own businesses, obtaining their own incomes and creating supportive global networks and communities. In conclusion, if you thought it wasn’t possible to do needlework and be a feminist, you were most definitely wrong (see image c). 

WORKS CITED

Traub, Michelle. “Etsy Statistics: November 2013 Weather Report.” Etsy News Blog. Web. 13 Dec. 2013. 

Offensend, Elizabeth Gillette, “Crafting a Space: A Feminist Analysis of the Relationship Between Women, Craft, Business and Technology on Etsy.com” (2012). Dissertations and Theses. Paper 892.

Gilley, Jennifer, “Writings of the third wave: young feminists in conversation” (2005). The Alert Collector.

Stryker, Krista, “Crafty Bitches” Willamette Weekly Newspaper. Web. 3 Oct. 2007.

Smith, Judy and Balka, Ellen, “Chatting on a Feminist Computer Network” Technology and Women’s Voices: Keeping in Touch (1988) p. 66-70. Print.

Luckman, Susan, “Gender, Craft and the Creative Economy”.