Dear all,


Thanks to Christena for clarifying that sex is a biological term, while
gender is the achieved attribute, and leading us to sociolinguist Deborah
Tannen.

Does gender matter in the field of design? The list discussion somehow upset
me in a way that makes it important for me to share some private and
professional experiences, as well as thinking a bit aloud.

1. Private experience
Before my daughter was born I was convinced that the difference between the
sexes was basically due to cultural expectations. After her consequent
rejections of her brother’s playthings and clothes from the very beginning
she had the possibility to object, my convictions have been permanently
changed. I did make a final trial when she was 5: bought a pink play truck
that she accepted to please me. Then, to celebrate the gift, she dressed up
in her finest clothes and shoes, went to the playground in the garden, where
she sat down and baked sand cakes that she orderly set on the back of the
lorry, before she carefully rolled it out of the playing area and parked it
under a tree, which she had defined as an oven. There she unloaded the cakes
and ended the play with the lorry for ever. 

After parking the lorry, she had her own girlish things without
interference. Today, 20 years later, she is perceived by her fellow students
as a tough tomboy that occasionally dresses up to become the queen of the
ball. My problem as a mother is that although she is a brilliant student,
she dislikes the university milieu in which she stays; it is too stressful,
too competitive. No funding, no reward, not the best professors in the world
in her field (they are there) will make her stay and take her doctorate if
she does not thrive. Only people that treat her nicely can.

Deborah Tannen writes in her popular article “The Feminine Technique: Men
attack problems. Maybe women understand that there's a better way”:

… many men find that their adrenaline gets going when someone challenges
them, and it sharpens their minds: They think more clearly and get better
ideas. But those who are not used to this mode of exploring ideas, including
many women, react differently: They back off, feeling attacked, and they
don't do their best thinking under those circumstances 

(The Los Angeles Times, March 15, 2005
http://www.georgetown.edu/faculty/tannend/latimes031505.html [downloaded
21.11.06]).


2. Personal professional feedback
I have for 20 years produced artifacts meant for catechetical use and
embellishment in church rooms. In the beginning my work was recognized as
form. Surprisingly, I get recurrent positive response from female
theologians that perceive my abstract Christian iconography as feminine. Why
do they do that? My personal experience has been that I worked in a very
masculine way, binding metal thread into transparent webs. When I started to
build rather big structures in wire (the Cross/crucifix Series 1989-1994),
my shoulders grew two sizes over five years of workout. The form was
minimalist in black iron with or without a copper element. 

Through the years this work has been exhibited and used several times and I
have often introduced it with an artist talk. It was through these talks
that I myself became aware of my feminine language. Underlying my work on
the cross and crucifix forms lay my personal experiences, including that of
physical pain, which for me was giving birth. I realized that I had thought
of the crucifixion when I gave birth, and of giving birth when I made
crucifix forms. Reflecting on my work together with an audience the birth
metaphor became evident!


3. Thinking a bit aloud
My husband happened to be a student member of the Board of Oslo School of
Architecture in 1969. In his class there were only two women out of 30 and
this inequality became a topic. Students were elected based on drawings;
first those sent by post and second the performance during one week in the
studio of the school. The teacher in drawing was a young artist, he had the
solution saying: we can simply select 50 % of each sex! He declared that he
could easily see which sex had made a drawing; if the school wanted 50 %
women, he would choose them. It was no problem. From 1969 on, the number of
men and women at OSA has been fairly even.

We who teach in art and design schools see the sex through the students’
contributions. 
There are exceptions to the rule, but basically we do. Is this due to gender
or sex?

Tannen indicates that the pattern of the Western Christian culture is not
universal:

Chinese philosophy sees the universe in a precarious balance that must be
maintained, leading to methods of investigation that focus more on
integrating ideas and exploring relations among them rather than on opposing
ideas and fighting over them (op.cit.).

I suggest we think of gender more in terms of culture than of sex. The
gender is inculturated at least twofold: as sex brought up the place they
live and through their education and profession. This means that I may have
more in common with other designers regardless of gender than women in
general. When this is said, I may have something in common with other female
designers that I do not have with men. This has to do with shared
experiences, of being the “same tribe”. Luckily there are exceptions to the
rule both ways, and then the personal character adds to complicate the
picture, some people we communicate and link better with than others.  


Conclusion
I think there is a sex difference, which is inculturated the place you are
brought up, which again is molded through your professional life. To ask for
pointing out differences between the sexes may be one way of proving gender
cultural codes. Another is to be open minded and taking it as a premise that
the genders are not alike, we feel, think and act from various experiences,
perspectives and aims. This does not mean that we should be monocultural, on
the contrary, because we see things differently, we should – I dare say –
always work together! 

My way of writing here is according to Tannen’s text, typically feminine: I
want to share my experiences with you – a positive audience. If I thought
you were more negative, I would keep silent. I see the same pattern with my
students, although there are exceptions to the rule, the female students
speak about themselves and their experiences and feelings in their
contribution whatever the task may be. Many of them tell me afterwards that
writing – which is my field – that they initially feared, was not that bad
because…, and then they are unable to say why. But I think it is the non
competitive atmosphere that I create in my classes that makes them feel
secure and overcome their shy- and nervousness.

Most women and many men think best in a caring and generous milieu. Why do
more men than women write on this list? What kind of forum do women need to
wish to participate in public discussions? 

Does gender matter in the field of design? My answer is: yes it does.

Thanks to Chris Rusts’ including attitude in the post on conferences, may be
it has a component of gender in it. As researchers we may think about it. 

And thanks again to Christena for good talks in Lisbon, and for sharing her
knowledge with us. 



Best wishes,

Grete Refsum

Dr. & sculptor
Associate Professor
Oslo National Academy of the Arts

<www.refsum.no>