Women In The Design Industry

Women have been constantly ignored in the workplace throughout history, and in the design industry it is no different. More than 50% of GD graduates are comprised by women, a rate which is steadily increasing however since the 1970s only one Woman was included in the AGDA Hall Of Fame. (Bruce & Lewis) The AGDA’s own committee board is comprised of mostly males, and the same goes for many design firms.

The Designing Women exhibition highlights the work of ongoing female designers, celebrating their creations but also to give them a voice as they are often overlooked in the male dominated industry. The exhibition is not limited to one field of design but unites all female designers from all the different fields in order to inspire both current and future designers whilst respecting the contributions from female designers of the past.

This arrangement of artworks has a powerful image representation of the design industry, it represents the different challenges and experiences that women have faced whilst trying to succeed. The dress which is reflected in the mirror can be said to describe how the design industry is male dominated, even if the work a female artist produces is amazing the artist is overshadowed just because she is a female. This is reflective of the statistic that was presented earlier, how even though women are clearly present in the industry by making up more than 50% of the GD graduates hardly any of them gain any recognition. 

The colour red of the dress represents the strength, determination and passion that female designers have for their art and are willing to persevere against the odds in order to have their work recognised and respected. This representation describes the experiences of Lynda Warner, who was placed in a time period where there were hardly any female designers as the industry was seen as one that were driven by males only and females were made to do dress making or secretary jobs. However, Lynda was determined to pursue her area of passion and with the support of her parents she completed her commercial art qualification at Swinburne university. She was then handpicked by a professional designer as her portfolio was so good, where she progressed to start her own career after his tutorage where she continued to succeed.
(Connory, 2017)  

Another interpretation of this is that the dress is the female’s artist career at her prime however, after entering parenthood it becomes muddied and uncertain as shown by the dull colours of the dress reflected in the mirror. This represents the social issues surrounding work and motherhood, as women tend to be looked over for promotions, paid less and assumed to be un-competent at her job just because she became a mother. This social issue is present in all areas of work, and it is no different here as from the experience of Michaela Webb, she found that she was discriminated against after trying to return to her career after having a child. In order to maintain her career, she had to shift the way she thought about work from the role of an active worker she became a more managerial one. These are only some of the social issues which continue to impact the women in the Industry and discourages them from seeking a career as a designer.
(Connory, 2017)

There is also the social stigma that women should only do “feminine” work such as fashion and textiles, while men do the more practical work such as industrial design. (Connory, 2017) This combined with the other social issues creates several hurdles women designers have to overcome in order to be successful designers. These issues are represented by the many layers on the dress, as each layer presents each hurdle and as these hurdles build up over a woman’s career it forms several layers that the female designer has to cope with to maintain her career. For example, the first hurdle would be getting into the university for a design course which isn’t considered feminine, the second would be getting a job as a female designer and a third would be trying to fit motherhood into her career. (Bruce & Lewis)

The Designing Women exhibition cleverly depicts the problems and issues in the Design Industry of today by using female designer’s works which at the same time gives them exposure in order to help fix those issues. It highlights the many difficulties that women have to face in order to establish her own career as a designer, as well as to maintain it. These difficulties include the social issues and discrimination that arises due to motherhood, or simply being a woman. If we want to end these issues we must raise awareness about them, which is what the Designing Women exhibitions is trying to achieve.

References

Bruce, M., & Lewis, J. Women Designers- Is There A Gender Trap? Retrieved from: https://lms.monash.edu/pluginfile.php/8323633/mod_resource/content/1/wk%209%20bruce%20and%20lewis%20women%20designers%202.pdf

Connory, J. (2017). Plotting the Historical Pipeline of Women in Graphic Design. Retrieved from: https://lms.monash.edu/pluginfile.php/8323632/mod_resource/content/1/Wk%209%20Plotting-the-Historical-Pipeline-of-Women-in-Graphic-Design_171117.pdf