The Erasure of Women in Design
and other traditionally 'feminine' subjects with no space for women
Litsperation: Women Design by Libby Sellers
Apparently women are not notable designers, raise your hand if you’re shocked. Recently I have been looking for design inspiration for my non existent house and decided to consult ‘Design: The Definitive History of Visual Design’. As I was flicking through its pages I found that most the designers were men, and it’s not a 60/40 split either, it’s more of a game of ‘Where’s Wally’. This was surprising and of course unsurprising for different reasons and I’ll start with the latter. It is unsurprising due to the fact the patriarchy and its ideals persists in all aspects of western life so I would be lying if I claimed I was shocked by its appearance here. The surprising part is the fact that there is an entire chapter dedicated to ‘Arts and Crafts’ and its mostly populated by men. To me this was absolute insanity since many women were relegated to doing ‘Arts and Crafts’ as they were not considered intellectually capable of practicing more regarded forms of design (more on this in my post on Bauhaus coming up). Then I started to think about other disciplines that women have mastered and are considered feminine yet the most regarded in these professions seem to be men.
The place where innovation and skill resides is no place for a woman
Let’s take cooking as an example, take some time to think about the most famous chefs you know. Done? Great. How many of them were women? According to google there’s only one.
Let’s try another example, let’s look at famous hairdressers.
Just one more for giggles, famous dressmakers.
Okay so you get the picture. The point I’m trying to make is that even in fields that are reserved for women, there is no room for women to gain recognition and more importantly no room to receive monetary compensation for these skills. This is a systematic method of controlling women and our agency, it goes deeper than just removing our economic contribution but also affects our perception of ourselves. We perceive that anything we complete can never be innovative as innovation is reserved for men. We perceive that anything we create - even to a high standard - is not impressive as we are always being marked against perfection, therefore more and more women are discouraged from expressing themselves in creative avenues. As a result we as a society lose insight from 50% of our population, and the patriarchy continues to perpetuate its male centric reality.
Ray Eames
Let’s rewind back to the topic of design, I had to stop referencing ‘Design: The Definitive History of Visual Design’ as I’m quite self obsessed and if I can’t see myself being represented I couldn’t care less. I moved on to ‘Women Design’ by Libby Sellers to find designers that I felt inspired by, and Ray Eames stood out to me.
Ray Eames was part of the iconic Eames duo responsible for ‘The Art of Sitting’, she was married to Charles Eames and the two changed the way we sit today! Ray born 1912, had a background in Fine Arts and was a founding member of American Abstract Artists, a group primarily focused on contemporary art. She entered competitions such as ‘Organic Design in Home Furnishing’ and used her background to understand sculptural form, biomorphism and abstract modernism.
Design: The Definitive Visual History
Husband and wife team Charles and Ray Eames transformed interior design with pioneering furniture made from materials that reflected forms of modern architecture
Unfortunately due to perceptions of gender at the time, Ray was put to the side in favour of her husband Charles with many people referencing his work rather than acknowledging the partnership between the two. Watch the video below to see a cringe-worthy example of this in 1956 on the Home Show.
Its interesting of course because the home was a woman’s domain and yet even here Ray is shown to be nothing more than an assistant to her husband. She was much more than this, Ray brought modernist aspects of art into their designs creating the famous and iconic chairs we take for granted today.
She spent hours dedicated to the precise angle of a chair leg and many more to manipulating plywood into different shapes leading to the creation of the famous plywood chairs we know today. These would be replicated and mass produced for the US Army during World War II.
Conclusion
Women have made significant contributions to the world of design and a variety of other creative disciplines, these contributions are worth celebrating and being inspired by. If we are not actively seeking out these creations, they will be erased by the narrative that only praises men. So do your part and find a creative that inspires you!
Books Referenced
Women Design by Libby Sellers
Eames by Brigitte Fitoussi
Design: The Definitive Visual History
Thanks for reading! If you like this post, like this post :)
I’m trying a new style of post today with more forms of media so I hope you like it! These are predominantly scans I took from the library I will be including a lot more of these going forward as I think they are more visually appealing than getting an image online. I also decided I didn’t want the book covers to be the main picture, it was kind of ruining the vibe I was going for, I’m not sure why I’m telling you this but I just thought you should know.
this was a really interesting read and you’re so right things that are usually assumed to be “a woman’s role” are very very very often highlighting and spotlighting women LOL gosh and don’t even get d started on how hard it is to colour it up and get some poc women in there whewwwww
Go women!! So insightful :)