Are you reading this article in a freezing office, wrapped up in the sweater you keep on your desk chair and put on every morning? Or maybe you’re in a one-bedroom apartment, where you work remotely and have to remember to occasionally stand close to the window for a dose of Vitamin D? Have you just read your fifth “take” of the day on the #MeToo movement and are now wondering how long it will be before the guy who sits next you asks, “Am I even allowed to say hi to women anymore?”
If the answer to any of the above is “yes,” you might want to check out women-focused co-working spaces.
Companies like The Wing in New York, RISE Collaborative Workspace in St. Louis and L.A.-based start-up Quilt have recently become big attractions, promising comfort and community for women who have grown dissatisfied with traditional work environments. The experiences vary in terms of price, membership and amenities. But all operate under the belief that spaces predominantly geared toward women are necessary, especially in the era of #MeToo and President Trump.
“Women are connecting to their instincts and voice,” said Ashley Sumner, co-founder of Quilt. “We are a platform where women can come and openly express themselves.”
Quilt is unique in that it doesn’t offer a centralized workspace. Rather, its 1,000 or so members work for four-hour sessions out of each other’s homes,listed on Quilt’s site, similar to Airbnb. Sumner says members range in age from 21 to 67. And compared to other co-working spaces, it’s much more affordable; for $29 a month, members have unlimited access to Quilt’s gatherings, which include “learn” sessions, where women teach each other about everything from cryptocurrency to the cannabis industry, and “Coffee + Chats,” which are pretty much self-explanatory.
“I haven’t been to a ‘Coffee + Chat’ where a woman hasn’t cried,” said Sumner.
Nisha Chittal, engagement editor at Racked and member of The Wing, also spoke of the importance of collegiality and “sisterhood” in these times.
Unlike members’ clubs open to both men and women, Chittal says “The Wing has a really feminist bent and feminist mission. I like feeling part of that community, like everyone here cares about the same things.”
The Wing is on the high end of the pricing spectrum, costing members up to $250 a month for unlimited access to all its locations. (Currently there are two, with more on the way.) In addition to the workspace, decked out in millennial pink, The Wing offers members numerous amenities — such as a library stocked with female-identifying authors, a lactation room and blowouts on demand. It also hosts events, including one last year featuring Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York.
Recently, the company netted impressive investments. In the fall, it was reported that The Wing raised a $32 million Series B round of funding — one of the biggest raised by women founders in recent memory, according to Forbes.
The announcement came a little over a month after the #MeToo hashtag went viral, unleashing a flood of revelations about workplace sexual harassment. Yet Audrey Gelman, The Wing’s founder and CEO, believes the company’s rapid growth has more to do with the general political climate, rather than one particular movement.
“I think #MeToo is definitely an outgrowth of something we saw beforehand, which was the Women’s March, the election of Donald Trump really leading women to link arms with one another and to make their voices heard,” said Gelman. “There’s been a drumbeat of things that are going on and current events in the news that have brought women closer together this year and made women more interested in being part of spaces that are just for them.”
Gelman says The Wing’s community is very diverse, consisting mainly of professional women between the ages of 25 and 50. Freelancers like to work there during the day, she said, but women with full-time jobs — like Chittal — are also drawn to the space for its after-work events, such as panel discussions, screenings and book clubs.
Nothing is for everyone, however, and The Wing is not without its critics. In a 2016 piece for CNBC, reporter Marguerite Ward spent a day working there. And while she enjoyed the experience, she said everything was a little too “pink and pricey” for her taste.
“The founders of The Wing welcome women of all backgrounds, including transgender women. That’s awesome and important,” Ward wrote. “But the decor still feels kind of 1950s. And as a working woman who dislikes the ‘pink tax,’ I want little to do with that era.”
Some have chafed at the entire idea of women-only environments. In California, for example, several men’s rights activists have sued women’s groups for meeting without men, arguing they violate civil rights law that bans discrimination based on sex. At the New Women’s Space in Brooklyn, meanwhile, someone graffitied the door with the word “c**t.” The group put the word in the exact same handwriting on a $25 t-shirt, donating $5 of every sale to anti-sexual violence efforts.









