Feminist design refers to connections between
feminist
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...
perspectives and
design
A design is the concept or proposal for an object, process, or system. The word ''design'' refers to something that is or has been intentionally created by a thinking agent, and is sometimes used to refer to the inherent nature of something ...
. Feminist design can include feminist perspectives applied to design disciplines like
industrial design
Industrial design is a process of design applied to physical Product (business), products that are to be manufactured by mass production. It is the creative act of determining and defining a product's form and features, which takes place in adva ...
,
graphic design
Graphic design is a profession, academic discipline and applied art that involves creating visual communications intended to transmit specific messages to social groups, with specific objectives. Graphic design is an interdisciplinary branch of ...
and
fashion design
Fashion design is the art of applying design, aesthetics, clothing construction, and natural beauty to clothing and its accessories. It is influenced by diverse cultures and different trends and has varied over time and place. "A fashion design ...
, and parallels work like
feminist urbanism,
feminist HCI and
feminist technoscience. Feminist perspectives can touch any aspect of the design project including processes, artifacts and practitioners.
History
There is a long history of feminist activity in design. Early examples include movements for dress reform (mid–19th century) and concepts for utopian feminist cities (late 19th century to the early 20th century). Over time this work has explored topics like beauty, DIY,
feminine
Femininity (also called womanliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and Gender roles, roles generally associated with women and girls. Femininity can be understood as Social construction of gender, socially constructed, and there is also s ...
approaches to architecture, community-based and grassroots projects, among many examples. Some iconic writing includes Cheryl Buckley's essays on design and patriarchy and Judith Rothschild's ''Design and feminism: Re-visioning spaces, places, and everyday things''.
Scope
Some scholars suggest that all designers should be feminists, as drawn by
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born Grace Ngozi Adichie; 15 September 1977) is a Nigerians, Nigerian writer of novels, short stories, poem, and children's books; she is also a book reviewer and literary critic. Her most famous works include ''Purple ...
, approaching feminism not only through gender but through power.
“Not surprisingly, feminist approaches to design have generally been concerned with the relationship between women and design-how they are affected by it and how their contributions to it are regarded. These two inquiries have been thoroughly investigated in existing literature. Historically, they tended to be based on universal accounts of women, which assumed a cisgender, white, heterosexual, able-bodied woman. Only recently has the work expanded to advance our under- standing of the ways in which the impacts of design are felt at the intersections of gender and race, class, and other identities. Most feminist discourse in design seems to imply that the problems raised would not be problems if more designers were women and if their perspectives were valued.”
Feminist insights for design
Isabel Prochner's research explored how feminist perspectives can support positive change in industrial design. She stressed the diversity of feminist perspectives, but also argued that they can help identify systemic social problems and inequities in design and guide
socially sustainable and grassroots design solutions. She wrote that feminist perspectives in industrial design often support:
*"Emphasizing human life and flourishing over output and growth
*Following best practices in labor/ international production /trade
*Choosing an empowering workspace
*Engaging in non-hierarchical/ interdisciplinary/ collaborative work
*Addressing user needs at multiple levels, including support for pleasure/ fun/ happiness
*Creating thoughtful products for female users
*Creating good jobs through production/ execution/ sale of the design solution"
Related pages
*
Inclusive design
Inclusive design is a design process in which a product, service, or environment is designed to be usable for as many people as possible, particularly groups who are traditionally excluded from being able to use an interface or navigate an environm ...
*
Dolores Hayden
*
Intersectionality
Intersectionality is an analytical framework for understanding how groups' and individuals' social and political identities result in unique combinations of discrimination and privilege. Examples of these intersecting and overlapping factor ...
* ''
Data Feminism''
*
Nina Paim
*
Futuress
*
Cyberfeminism
Bibliography
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References
{{Design
Feminism and society
Design