Title: What Would a World Designed by Women Look Like?
Context: Diversity of thought and experience is the most effective way to address the problems impacting a world forged within a historically narrow set of perspectives.
Synopsis: As I read this article I became acutely aware of my personal biases. Descriptions of clear-eyed, uncompromising designers that would not be at all unexpected in any other context have a markedly different effect when the subject is female. It shouldn’t — and I know it shouldn’t — but it does. Design often masquerades behind a veneer of progressiveness when compared to other industries. We act more enlightened whether it be due to our artistic sensibilities or mantra of empathy as the core strength of the designer. How can we possibly be sexist/racist/classicist when it is our very job to approach every question with a clean slate? Prejudice in the pursuit of a designed answer is often its death knell, at least that’s what we say in polite company; probably even what we believe. Our biases can be buried deep enough that we aren’t forced to acknowledge them as obvious character flaws, but not so deep that they don’t color our judgement. In that light, this article is well worth a read as much to highlight the long overdue shifting of demographics within the design profession as for the visionary quality of the work it calls attention to. How much of this type of potential went unrealized in the past is anyone’s guess, and we are collectively poorer for that fact.
Best Bit: “Look around [architecture]’s most promising frontiers, the areas that have the best chance of improving the world; that’s where the women leaders are.”
via thecut.com
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