Before starting my research into the issue of gender disparity within the design industy I first thought of a list of questions I wanted to find out through researching, going to events and also contacting industry professionals directly. These are the questions I wanted to find answers to:
• Why is gender disparity an issue in the industry?
• What can be done about it to make it a thing of the past?
• What steps are already being taken to help erase this issue?
• What movements exist that are challenging this issue?
• What are the statistics surrounding this issue?
• What would the benefits be if gender equality was achieved in the design industry?
Why is gender disparity an issue in the industry?
• Underrepresented in the history books - 'If you’re a woman in design, I recommend you have a large gin before you type “famous graphic designers” into Google. If you do it, check out the image carousel that pings up at the top of your results. Sure, I’m girl-crushing on Paula Scher as much as the next woman, but after five spins of the carousel, it shows me just five women out of 50 people.'
The thing is, they were there: the Nike swoosh; the original A-Z (look up Phyllis Pearsall – her story is amazing); the UK’s road signs; and the 1984 LA Olympic Games identity – they just never had the profile.
The thing is, they were there: the Nike swoosh; the original A-Z (look up Phyllis Pearsall – her story is amazing); the UK’s road signs; and the 1984 LA Olympic Games identity – they just never had the profile.
'How many female designers do you see in design history books? Not many.'
'Design has been a man’s world since the Industrial Revolution. Even in the 20th century, the few successful women tended to work with male collaborators, who usually overshadowed them. Take Lilly Reich, the principal designer of most of the furniture routinely attributed to Mies Van Der Rohe. Or Charlotte Perriand, who was relegated to a similar supporting role with Le Corbusier and her lover Edouard Jeanneret. The same fate befell Ray Eames, wife of the more famous Charles.'
• Confidence issue - We’re holding ourselves back by not raising our hands, and by pulling back when we should be leaning in” is an important truth and I have yet to find a woman who has not identified with it at some point. Combined with this, women are less likely to build their networks or take platforms to speak, and we tell ourselves “how lucky we are” and continuously settle for what’s on offer rather than push and negotiate. I’ve done all of these things in my career.
• Under-representation at events - Bonnie Abbott, believes that an unimaginative approach to conference formats is to blame for the current lack of diversity at events.
"It would seem some event organisers rely on what has been said and done before," Abbott told Dezeen. "They don't have to take risks with programming, so we get the same safe names which, usually, are not women, nor anyone with a challenging, new or alternative perspective."
• Lack of belief from others- The short answer is the same lack of self-belief and entitlement that dogs them in every other profession, combined with opposition from those who commission the majority of design projects, most of whom are men. The graphic designer Paula Scher once described this as the “Why did I get the woman?” syndrome.
• Lack of support raising a family “As in all professions, it’s the hours you put in during your 30s and 40s that really propel you forward. Design projects run on tight, often changeable timelines. It is not a 9-to-5 job. If women have children and unless they are in super-supportive relationships, they are on the back foot here.” - Ilse Crawford
• Double Standards - I’ve spent almost the entirety of my career trying to hide the fact that I’m female. For more than 15 years, I declined to work on lady projects and brands. I kept declining those projects, year after year, in spite of having what could be described as a fairly androgynous portfolio of work. I didn’t want to be stereotyped — I just wanted to run with the boys, and act like them too. But when I act exactly like them…I get called difficult.
Women called bossy, men called motivating etc.
'A few months after that, I was partnerless, sitting in the recruiter’s office. This is when I learned that women could be more sexist than men: she feigned a barely-believable display of regret, stating there simply wasn’t any way she could find me a partner because I wasn’t assigned to a particular client. I calmly asked her if it would help to show prospects my work (composed of award-winning ad campaigns). “Why?” she asked coolly. “Is it any good?”'
And I quit accepting difficult as a pejorative term. It can also mean “not easy to please or satisfy.” If I was a man, you might call me a perfectionist.
What can be done to make it a thing of the past?
With late nights and long hours perceived as standard in creative departments, many see advertising as a career they can’t sustain with a young family. Advertising agencies need to provide flexible working conditions, job shares and ‘returnships’ to encourage women who leave to come back so that the industry doesn’t lose these valuable perspectives.
Hire on potential, not achievement. Studies show many women won’t apply for a role until they meet 100% of the hiring criteria and women are hired on proof they can do a job, so female creatives are in a double-bind: if they’re not achieving “rock star” status, they’re not considered, even if they have the potential to fulfil the role.
Actively promote female creatives. A friend applied for an executive creative directorship last year. Sixty CVs were put forward; two were female. To change the ratio, recruiters have a responsibility to put forward a gender diverse consideration set for every role. We’re asking for one in three CVs, with the shortfall coming from the rung below.
Promote a gender-neutral face. Recruiters need to commit to gender-neutral language and non-gender specific jobs.
To eradicate the lack of women in leadership positions employers need to foster healthy connections between women and providing opportunities to show that
women can get to the top roles. - Jessica Walsch
'Women are becoming gatekeepers as they rise to powerful positions in other industries. They may be more open to commissioning female designers, as, in fairness, may the next generation of male gatekeepers.'
'Another factor is that design is expanding into new areas in response to advances in science and technology and social and economic changes. Historically women have thrived on new turf where there are no male custodians and they are free to invent their own ways of working, as Muriel Cooper did as a pioneer of digital design during the 1970s and 1980s.'
A defining quality of these new disciplines — and the evolution of older ones — is collaboration, both between individuals and by fusing elements of different fields, something that women tend to do well.
What movements exist that are challenging this issue?
• Kerning The Gap is a collective of like-minded people who want to see more women in design leadership roles.
• Creative Equals, an initiative to provide more pathways to critical leadership roles for female creatives, by tackling culture change with charters for industry, recruitment and agencies.
• Girl Say Stories Blog
• Chicks in Advertising (CIA)
What are the statistics surrounding this issue?
• 70% of graphic design students are women; yet only 11% are Creative Directors.
• Girls consistently outperform boys in all spectrums of education, yet only 18% of the board of FTSE 250 businesses are women.
• The Drum’s 2015 list of the top 100 ‘designerati’ features 13 women.
• David Cameron has insisted that businesses over 250 publish their pay scales, yet 98% of design businesses employ less than 50 people.
• Females make 85% of all purchasing decisions, yet are woefully underrepresented in creative jobs in advertising.
• Seven in 10 women feel alienated by advertising - not surprising given that only 11% of creative directors are female.
• In 2008, just 3.6% of the world’s creative directors were female. Since then it has tripled to 11%; in London, my research shows, the figure is about 14% – still shockingly low.
• 88% of young female creatives say they lack role models
• 70% of young female creatives say they have never worked with a female creative director or executive creative director• 70% of young female creatives are working in a 75% male-dominated department• 60% of young females say they believe advertising is a career that doesn’t support young families
• Work from female designers only accounts for 30% of the design curriculum at London’s Central Saint Martins (yet 70% of its students are women). The Guardian also reports that art and design degree courses in general are dominated by women. Yet a Design Council survey shows that only 40% of professional designers are female.
What would the benefits be if gender equality was achieved in the design industry?
'With more women directing the ads our powerful audience of female consumers see, we can change the way women are portrayed in the media, be culturally relevant as an industry and create a fresh type of advertising.' - Ali Hanan, Creative director at Creative Equals
"I believe that we have to focus on thriving, and really think about the possibility that we will soon arrive in this post-patriarchal context that society has been longing for a long time, but it hasn't happened," said Krzykowski
"Since the election, since the marches, it's probably happening in every industry that women are feeling like 'oh so much happened in the 60s and 70s for women's rights', and then we got maybe a little complacent," Adelman continued. "Now it's time to say 'oh no we actually have to get out there again and be heard, and give our energy and time and attention to this event'."
Why Recruiting and Retaining Women Matters
1. Women make your company more profitable
2. Women buy all of the things. Women should be selling them too.
3. Parents are better workers
4. Having women in leadership improves your company culture
Quotes from industry professionals
'She does, however, believe that the situation for female designers has improved since setting up her studio in 2006, and that now is a better time than ever for women in design.
"What's happening more than ever is that it's not as if doors were closed," said Adelman. "I've never found that doors were closed, but I did notice that I had to open the doors, because nobody's opening them for you. But now I think those doors have been opened, so it's a lot easier and more comfortable for women."
"We are not at the tipping point yet – we are on the stage before."
"It's not just about the technicality of gender equality either, because men and women are different. Balanced panels, balanced meetings, balanced companies just feel better and behave better - there's more nuance, a greater diversity of tone as well as of voice."
Architect David Adjaye recently said he was "embarrassed as a male" that women still need to fight for gender equality, while Denise Scott Brown petitioned to be recognised for the joint achievements of herself and husband Robert Venturi.
Most recently, Sheela Maini Søgaard, the only woman among the 12 partners at BIG, had to defend the firm's diversity after founder Bjarke Ingels posted a photograph on Instagram of all 12 partners, captioned "BIG BOYS&GIRL" – highlighting the gender imbalance at partner level.
Meanwhile, a number of recent exhibitions have asked women to produce a certain kind of work because of their sex, arguably perpetuating gender stereotypes. Furniture brand Lago worked with eight prominent Italian women to create a series of rooms in "an ode to women's kindness", while seven female designers were asked by Italian metal brand De Castelli to create metal furniture with "strong emotional allure".
