Gender in Design: Pedagogic Histories and Practices

Our upcoming seminar series ‘Hidden Histories: Gender in Design’ aims to bring to the fore hidden or previously ignored figures and design projects, and seeks to highlight the role of gender and collaborative process behind much design history of the last century and into the future.

The seminars are held online via Zoom on Thursdays from 19:30-21:00 and are free to attend by all.

Session 8: Thursday 26th May 2022

ZOOM call for this event: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89917008019

Gender in Design: Pedagogic Histories and Practices

PART 1: HISTORIES - 19:30-20:40

Alexandra Kocsis: The Class of 1911: the Beginnings of Coeducation in the Royal School of Arts and Crafts, Budapest

In 1911, sixteen young women set out to study applied arts and design in the first mixed high school class of the Royal School of Arts and Crafts in Budapest. Since coeducation on high school level was a fiercely disputed topic at that time in Hungary, this was a groundbreaking reform in the most important school of the applied arts in Budapest. Educating girls and boys together was a radical move even in the context of progressive pedagogy. I propose to present what we know about the practice of coeducation and about the approach towards the education of female students based on the minutes of the teachers’ meetings and other archival sources.

Alexandra Kocsis is an independent art historian and translator based in Budapest. She graduated from the University of Kent Canterbury and the Freie Universität Berlin in 2019. During her PhD studies, she worked on the functioning of text and image in Renaissance prints from Antwerp and Rome. The results of this research were published in numerous edited volumes (The Reception of the Printed Image in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries, Routledge, 2021, La lettre de l’estampe, Peter Lang, 2021, Raphael: Drawing and Eloquence, Accademia Raffaello, 2020). Her current project concerns female graphic designers who studied in the first coeducational class of the Royal School of Arts and Crafts, Budapest.

Benoît Vandevoort: Interior Design: an Excellent Domain for ‘Les Religieuses’

After the Second World War, numerous architecture schools in Belgium founded a separate program for interior design. Initially a hybrid between architecture, decorative arts, and furniture design, the evolution of the programs testified to the progressively autonomous status of the design discipline, privatizing knowledge and expertise for students pursuing careers in home decoration and interior spaces. The professional reality of interior design, however, would continuously suffer from a weaker professional identity, as is also evidenced by the numerous name changes and curriculum reforms that typify its relatively short educational history.

This inferiority complex has since been brought in relation to gender: associations with decoration and the domestic sphere have placed interior design in a feminine, ‘othered’ position in regard to architecture – based on a value system prioritizing a male rationalist and spatial approach. Nowadays, this gendering of interior design programs is affirmed by a female student majority nationwide, but the histories of the institutes teaching the programs equally offer interesting perspectives on the reception and the identity of the design discipline.

My presentation focuses on the early interior design courses of the Belgian network of Catholic Saint Luke schools. This collection of all-male institutes was initially characterized by an ideologically informed perception of interior spaces, pertaining to moral and social values for both individual users and family life. This context also complicated the transition into coeducation in 1960s, a process that, int his presentation, will be explored for the Ghent school: girls’ classes on homemaking were merged with the interior design classes because of the alleged relevance of both gender standpoints. A reading of the archival records show the attribution of gender profiles to the design discipline, but the absence of an archive for the women’s school also showcases the difficulty of reconstructing educational reforms.

Benoît Vandevoort is an architectural engineer. Since October 2020, he is a PhD student at the Faculty of Architecture at KU Leuven, where he researches the impact of twentieth-century Belgian education of interior design on the identity formation of the discipline (FWO-grant OZ8457). He has a strong interest in the production and dissemination of architectural knowledge, and its interaction with the built world. He is a teaching assistant in the interior design class led by Doorzon interieurarchitecten and has written for Belgian journals of architecture and visual culture, such as A+ and De Witte Raaf.

Barbara Jaffee: The Forgotten Futurism of Helen Gardner’s “Art Through the Ages”

University of Chicago-trained art historian Helen Gardner based her popular art history textbook, Art Through the Ages, on the innovative survey course she taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago between 1920 and her death in 1946. For the third edition, published posthumously in 1948, Gardner reorganized her material into a horizontal rather than vertical unfolding—a “world panorama of art.” In Gardner’s unprecedented, inclusive vision, Medieval Chinese artifacts commingle with the Renaissance art of Northwest Coast Indians, the whole culminating optimistically in a chapter devoted to the utopian internationalism of the modern industrial arts. Evoking the thrill of “a streamlined railroad car” and the delights of “the mechanized kitchen” and “simple, gaily colored gadget from the five-and-ten,” Gardner cheered these indicators of the reintegration of contemporary art “into the cultural fabric” (even as she remained skeptical of the “privatized” exhibition venues preferred by most modern painters and sculptors).

Sadly, little of Gardner’s ingenious scheme survived the Cold War revision of her text in 1959, as new editors, led by Sumner Crosby of Yale University, chose to reject globalism in favor of hierarchies based in elitist tastes and nationalist ideologies. (Crosby’s gratuitously arch dismissal of “Miss Gardner’s organization” and its “many opportunities for interesting comparisons” contrasts with his own choice to return the book to a “more normal order.”) Thus reinstating the status quo, Crosby preserved the presumably distinctive stylistic coherence of European fine art, but at considerable expense: not only would the anonymously-produced objects so important to Gardner no longer appear side-by-side with works bespeaking individual genius, as traditional, canonical works were reinscribed into the realm of pure art, but the modern, industrial design that had been the goal of Gardner’s insistent teleology simply disappeared—replaced with a new chapter on the “artistic history” of photography.

Barbara Jaffee is associate professor emerita of modern art and design history at Northern Illinois University. She earned her Ph.D. in art history at the University of Chicago, and holds B.F.A. and M.F.A degrees in painting from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her work on the relationship between the fine and the applied arts in the first-half of the twentieth century has been published in a number of journals and anthologies, including Historical Narratives of Global Modern Art (Routledge), Partisan Canons (Duke University Press), Open-Set, Panorama, Art Journal, Design Issues, and Art Criticism.

Dina Benbrahim, Lisa Maione, and Bree McMahon: A Contested Classroom: a Pedagogy of Resistance Against Colonial Discourses

Teaching design histories is political by definition — designed objects have the capacity to hold and reflect the values and aspirations of the social, technological, and political spheres of influence investing in the future at a time and place. Prompting students to reimagine their design practice through the lens of missing or underwritten histories is uncomfortable and frustrating. Jeannie Ludlow defines a contested space as more pertinent for learning and collaboration than a safe space where power and privilege are at the center. How do we instill a contested space in our classrooms to identify underrepresented design narratives and histories? In what ways does a culture of discomfort lead to pedagogically relevant learning experiences where we all question our ways of knowing, learning, and existing? How does establishing shared authority, between students and faculty in the classroom, make productive room for increased learning? How do we co-create a curriculum that invites first-year design students to investigate narratives outside the white, heteronormative male-dominated canon? Where do we research when a Google search leads nowhere? What tools, entry points and precedents do we use to teach design histories when traditional textbooks perpetuate erasure? This virtual presentation invites the audience to shift the pedagogical language from safe classroom to contested classroom, history to histories, Master Narrative to plural narratives, and a stagnant, elitist canon to a reinvented, inclusive, participatory canon. Additionally, it discusses strategies to teach design histories in context and from multiple perspectives using decolonial and feminist methodologies. Through examples of experimental and uncomfortable practices, syllabi examples, and students’ work, we will collectively challenge and resist existing power structures and dismantle colonial discourses.

Dina Benbrahim is an Arab multidisciplinary creative who uses a feminist lens to focus on illuminating the power in human beings to be transformative forces in society. She is currently an Endowed Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at University of Arkansas. Her research investigates design for visibility, civic action, and social justice for marginalized communities to collectively reimagine equitable futures. Previously, she was an Assistant Professor at SUNY at Buffalo. Dina also has 8 years of industry experience in design, art direction, copywriting and entrepreneurship in New York and Casablanca.

Lisa Maione is a designer and educator. She is an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design program at Kansas City Art Institute and serves as co-chair of the Diversity Working Group at the college. As an educator, she focuses on typography, design histories, type design and data visualization. Her research interrogates the screen as a raw material of perception, studies modes of imagination in collaborative practices, and investigates design's plural histories. Previously, she has taught design courses at Parsons School of Design, CUNY Queens College and Oklahoma State University and comes to teaching with over a decade of industry experience.

Bree McMahon is a designer and educator, currently an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design and Director of Graduate Studies for the Master of Design program at the University of Arkansas. Working alongside different collaborators, her research explores methods for disrupting traditional approaches to design pedagogy through workshops and dialogical prompts developed for students to examine complex topics. Additionally, her work focuses on the culture of pregnancy, birth, motherhood and the potential for design to address the complicated maternal health crisis in the United States.

PART 2: CONTEMPORARY PRACTICES - 20:45-22:00

Jen Pepper: Is Design Education Failing Women Designers?

Women designers are being underserved inside our design programs. Women design students are facing a lack of role models in the classroom both as it relates to those who are teaching them and the curriculum they are being taught. It is estimated that of all recent graduates of graphic design degree programs, 75% are women (Gosling, 2018). Yet, on average, design programs at U.S. universities are comprised of 75% male faculty (Gosling, 2018). With women students making up the majority in design programs, hiring faculty that reflects the student population makes a program more attractive to prospective students and vital in their success (Mack, Schultz, & Araki, 2002).

Women designers also lack representation in our curriculum through our design history books. When discussing design history, there is a focus on "design heroes': individual, monolithic designers whose work has been deemed culturally significant. Historically men have been in charge of declaring specific designers worthy of inclusion in history books (Nochlin, 2021). Even our most "unrivaled, comprehensive reference tool for graphic designers and students," Meggs' History of Graphic Design, glosses over the women pioneers of our industry. Only 48 women have works reproduced in the most recent edition, compared to the hundreds of male designers. Other design history volumes don't fare much better.

Women design students also need additional help when considering portfolio preparation. Women designers should learn the art of salary negotiation, especially when entering their first professional position. Salary negotiation is becoming more common for women, yet in 2019, 58% of women in all industries took the first salary offered without any negotiation (Glassdoor, 2019). There are additional actions academia must take in order to fully support young women designers and create true equity in the design field.

Jen Pepper is a freelance graphic designer and adjunct professor who lives on the North Shore of Massachusetts. She earned her BA in Visual Communication from the University of Delaware, and is finishing her MFA in Communication Design at Kutztown University, in Pennsylvania, where she has focused on the intersections of feminism and design. Her award-winning design and illustration work has been sold and collected across the globe. Her design work has also been featured in Computer Arts Magazine, 1000 More Greetings, Apartment Therapy, Real Simple, Boston Magazine and other publications.

Sofia Fernandez: Gender Studies in University Design Programmes in Germany

Despite an increasing focus on gender issues and antidiscrimination across the educational sector in Germany, Gender Studies is not yet an established part of the syllabuses of degree programmes in Design in this country. Across Germany there are approximately 30 undergraduate courses in Product / Industrial Design, of which only one (Köln International School of Design) has a module focussing on Gender as a regular part of their curriculum.

In my position as a research associate at the University of Applied Sciences in Berlin, teaching courses to a yearly intake of 40 students in Industrial Design, I saw an opportunity to bring Gender Studies into the study programme. I gave one of the compulsory courses, entitled “Design Discourse”, the focus Gender and Diversity. The course reflected on gender in relation to specific aspects of our socio-technical environment – e.g. Gender and Mobility, Gender and Labour, Gender and the City. Students were then asked to reflect on the course content in a logbook, recording how this related to their own “gendered” experience of issues central to Design. It was of central pedagogical importance that the students created a personal link to the content of the course, so that “Gender and Design” was not just an abstract topic, but became a concrete, observable experience.

In my contribution to the “Hidden Histories: Gender in Design” Conference, I will use this “Design Discourse – Gender and Diversity” course as a case study, presenting the structure and methodology as well as giving insights into the fascinating student results through anonymised extracts from the logbooks. I will also take a brief look at the wider context of Gender in Design Education and the ways in which Gender Studies can be further linked with the practice of Design.

Sofia Fernández is a Research Associate in the Industrial Design Programme at the University of Applied Sciences, Berlin, teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in 3D Design, Digital & Analog Prototyping, System Design and Design Theory, with a particular focus on Gender and Diversity. Her interest in feminist design history was sparked during an exchange semester at the Parsons New School of Design in New York. Besides her academic work, Sofia follows her independent design projects from her studio in Berlin.

Deepika Srivastava: Evaluating the Role of Gender in Influencing the Operations of a Woman-led Contemporary Architectural Studio in India: Shimul Jhaveri Kadri

India’s liberalisation in 1991 opened the country’s doors to new economic and market reforms. This allowed several young women entrepreneurs to gain success. Shimul Jhaveri Kadri, the founder and principal architect of the 30-year-old practice, SJK Architects (a foremost practice in India), and two of her women clients, both of who are owners of businesses belonging to the creative industries, are among these women entrepreneurs. Liberalisation not only allowed them to expand their businesses to global markets, and in the case of Javeri Kadri, deal with clients who came to India from abroad, but also expanded the boundaries of what being a woman practitioner meant in a changing India. SJK Architects operates as a private studio practice in Mumbai, with about twenty employees. It is positioned as a mainstream practice, which is evident from its clients and media coverage.

This paper looks at how the question of gender impacts the practice and client relations of SJK Architects. It does this by first situating the practice within the societal landscape it operates in. Factors which influence practice - location, organisational structure, media coverage, collaborators, and clients, are profiled through published academic and media works, and serve as a device to understand SJK Architects. These factors are then contextualised within the practice’s response to gender and development of architect-client relations. Although the practice has been profiled by the lay and professional media, where the focus is on covering individual projects, and by architectural historians, where the focus is on how the principal architect responded to the challenges of being a woman practitioner in India, with some focus on women clients, a discussion on how different factors influencing practice overlap and influence architect-client relations, and how the question of gender responds to them, is missing. This is the gap this research aims to fill.

Deepika Srivastava is a writer and arts manager. She is a graduate of the V&A/RCA MA History of Design programme, is currently working in India at the National Institute of Design, and volunteering with the UK-registered charity, Open/ Ended Design. She has a Bachelors in Interior Design from the Centre of Environment Planning and Technology in India, and has about five years of experience of working across museums, journalism, and academia in India and the UK. Her work has two strands - (a) bringing new and diverse stories of arts, culture and design to the intellectually curious (b) empowering those employed in the creative industries.

Yarden Levy: Designing Designers: Educating Fashion Designers Through Gendered Ideals

This paper is based on my dissertation which was inspired by Virginia Woolf’s ‘A Room of One’s Own,’ Linda Nochlin’s ‘Why Have Tthere Been No Great Women Artists?’, And Caroline Criado-Perez’s ‘Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men.’ These three thought-changing written works are laying out the gendering of creators, each in its way.

My dissertation researched the gendering of fashion design education in Israel. My case study was Shenkar College of Engineering, Design, and Art, Israel, between 2010-2020. In my research, I asked how Shenkar College’s Department of Fashion designs the ideal student through the local and Western fashion industry’s gendered ideals. I answered this question by interviewing a selection of the department’s staff, students, and graduates and examined the department’s curriculum.

My research commenced with defining the most prominent fashion industry’s gendered ideals. These ideals were artistic freedom, autonomy and authorship concerning the consumer and the industry, and absolute dedication to the job. Each one of these ideals is gendered in its way and re-contextualises in Israeli culture.

With the ideals I located, I analysed my primary sources. In this analysis, I found that both the curriculum and the staff’s spoken and unspoken educational messages are gendered. Moreover, in the students’ interviews, I found that the ideal student is out there, and their elusive traits can be identified.

My research aimed to decentralise fashion history and demystify the fashion designer as the sole genius creator of fashion, as this mystification is a male, and male is the default in an industry made of women.

Yarden Levy is a fashion researcher based in Tel Aviv, Israel, and a V&A/RCA History of Design MA graduate. Levy currently works as the Research Lead in an HR tech company called Unboxable and as a visiting lecturer and a tutor at Tel Aviv University for Youth. Levy established, along with two other colleagues, the Israeli Fashion Research Forum, of over 30 members. Levy loves learning and thinking about the process of decapitalising histories and knowledge and aims to do so with fashion history as well.

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To register for other sessions in the series, please sign up here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/design-history-society-8488825719