Why are there so few female designers out there?
Something really interesting happened when we launched our new id project www.madeinbunch.com, which is an initiative to get other designers to bastardise our logo which we will then turn into our new id.
We found that out of the forty or so who have so far had a go, only 3 were girls! And that's myself included! I KNOW there are female designers out there, so where are they hiding? I remember when I was at LCP, our course was split 50/50, boys/girls, so where are they now?
Nille (who I presume is a girl) actually addressed this point in her bastardisation of the Bunch logo.
Anyone got any ideas?
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posted by Katy Jones
on 12 April 2007
female designers
Maybe girls get out more while boys spend thier spare time shut in their bedrooms on the computer? I'll give the Bunch logo a bash when the sun stops shining though ;-)
posted by gemma petch
on 12 April 2007
female designers
I agree... boys maybe put more importance on posturing where as girls have better things to do. I had a look at the project, actually did a new logo but have been happy with that, I haven't actually taken the time yet to add it to the site... as Katy said...maybe when the sun stops shining I'll be more happy to sit at my desk and work out the technicalities of uploading the thing.
posted by Jo Kotas
on 12 April 2007
female designers
Possibly. I just found out that Nille who made the observation about there being vey few girls with work on the site was actually a guy.
He asked why did WE choose the people WE did on OUR list. How did WE think?
Which is a great question. Perhaps we are to blame for the people we have on the site. Perhaps there are thousands of female designers out there who would love to have a play with our logo, but haven't had the chance yet and its all our fault.
Or,
Maybe we know more male designers, maybe the female designers we emailed were too shy, too busy, not bothered, couldn't think of anything.
Or
Maybe its just the way it is for no reason at all... It just happened that way.
posted by Katy Jones
on 12 April 2007
female designers
very philisophical
posted by Matt Cooper
on 12 April 2007
Design is still young
Perhaps the relative infancy of the industry has something to do with it; designer's roles emerge out of technological advancements and these technological industries tend to be dominated by men (for whatever reason) therefore the industry's heritage is more male than female. The danger is that this becomes an inward spiral which puts women off entering the industry or wanting to move up once inside.
Hopefully as the industry grows the situation will balance itself out, if my course was anything to go by (where the balance was more like 60/40 in favour of women) then this balance will be met fairly soon.
A more urgent problem seems to be the good weather affecting work. I'd much rather be out in the sun than doing design as well.
posted by Malcolm Garrett
on 12 April 2007
Conversely ...
I wonder why there are so few male project managers in design.
posted by Malcolm Garrett
on 14 April 2007
Life on mars?
Back in September 2004 Jessica Helfand posed the following question (as part of a longer text) on the Design Observer blog: "Is the reason there’s never been a woman in the White House due to our preoccupation with the minutiae of everyday life, which translates to a kind of inability to truly focus — an area of expertise in which men tend to excel? Does the multitasking for which women are often lauded present inpenetrable obstacles in the race for single-minded achievement, performance and classic, capitalist definitions of success?"
'Gentlemen Prefer Blogs', Jessica Helfand. http://www.designobserver.com/archives/000203.html
She was writing about how few women write or contribute to design related blogs, and went on to consider female online concerns in general, but I think that her comments and the subsequent discussion thread are relevant here.
posted by Cat Douglas
on 17 April 2007
Not in my eyes
I've never a highly over-balanced male/female ratio in the workplaces I've done work experience at. This discussion seems to be initially based on the number of submissions to a project rather than women in the industry. It's got to be harder for women who want a family to reach as high career aspirations as men without those bodily functions so maybe this explains somewhat the reason there are less in the profession than men. Perhaps also another contributing factor could have something to do with testosterone levels, as this affects spatial awareness (check the BBC 'which sex is your brain' IQ test).
As far as I can see it's fairly balanced, but maybe that's because I'm female ;)
posted by Francesca Granato
on 01 October 2007
iDesign Females?
Take a look at this discussion continuing: http://www.dynamolondon.org/topics/25