An absence can’t always be easily explained. Statistics might confirm the presence of an absence that’s felt, but numbers don’t always speak to how or why that absence came into being. Research from the UK’s Design Museum in 2018 found that just one in five working designers are women, despite the fact that they make up seven out of 10 students studying design. Many were outraged by the findings. But for most of that one in five, there was a unanimous eye roll—a sigh as something already known was simply confirmed.
What happens in that time between the classroom and the office? The patriarchal dynamics that hinder women in the workplace at large are well-documented: there’s the old glass ceiling barring the careers of high-achievers; subtle and not-so-subtle sexism, sexual harassment, and abuse of power; the firmly entrenched gender pay gap; the challenge of managing maternity leave and childcare costs for parents. Then, there are the additional obstacles hindering women at the intersection of more than one historically marginalised group, including those oppressed due to race, class, ability, sexuality, and more. There are also the struggles of those whose gender identity does not conform to the binary. As the feminist writer Audre Lorde once said, “There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.”
The design profession is not immune from systematic oppression, though it does have its own specific histories in relation to gender. This project focuses most frequently on the issues faced by designing women, and it defines woman as any one who identifies herself as such. In hearing from a global range of women about their experiences in design, this article maps some of the broad and pervasive factors contributing to the exclusionary status-quo.
Through a combination of all these factors and more, a male-dominated graphic design canon of designers and design work has been firmly entrenched. The prevailing narratives privilege polemical gestures and celebrated individuals, while the issues and output of women and minority designers remain secondary from such accounts. Design history is so often a history of publicity—of self promotion, high-end catalogs, and keynote lectures. And the resulting lack of diverse representation has lead to a lack of designer role-models that young women and minorities can identify with and learn from. This absence can make it difficult to find one’s direction in the move from lecture hall to office desk.
“Seeing someone of your own gender, with your own skin tone, or someone of own class or caste doing something rad is half the battle won,” says Malhotra from Mumbai. “You don’t find it as difficult then, to see yourself in a similar role. Role-models are about seeing possibility for yourself; when you have them, there’s a greater likelihood that you’ll fulfil your ambition.” Studies have confirmed Malhotra’s sentiment. In 2017, for example, the University of Massachusetts studied the value of mentorship by pairing female engineering undergraduates with female mentors for an entire year. It found that those paired with women felt far more self-assured, motivated, and less anxious that those working with a male mentor.
A historical lack, or rather erasure, reverberates and repeats over time: prestigious journals, magazines, conferences, and the design media at large have typically reflected the socially-accepted, sexist status quo, reaffirming an exclusionary canon for graphic design. And imbalance, of course, perpetuates into the present: In 2019 for example, a report from AIGA’s Eye on Design found that across major design conferences in Europe, the average number of women speaking at events was 35.7%. The report also underlines how women are consistently allotted less time on stage than their male counterparts.
“Being surrounded by mostly white, male designers has an impact on the self-confidence of designers who are less or aren’t represented,” agrees Loraine Furter, a graphic designer and researcher based in Brussels who specializes in intersectional design projects. “Conferences and big studios are still led by men who, consciously or not, work with other men, and that—combined with a lack of role-models—creates a situation in which female-identifying designers refuse to speak at conferences because they feel less legitimate. Or, they don’t apply for high job positions or specific educational programs for the same reason.”