Hello to everybody,
Gender issues in design are interesting to discuss, but not in a
vacuum. Since Gunes mentioned about our country, I've felt that I need
to shed some light on our case here in Turkey.
Let me urge you first, if I can, not to rely on the patterns of the West
for explaining the specific cases of the emerging countries, especially
in design.
It may surprise to many, but women are in a position to dominate the
design academia in Turkey! Why and how of this phenomenon are too
complicated to discuss in detail here, and this is not without its own
specific problems either!
Just to give you an example, I work in an industrial design department
at one of the most respected technical universities in Turkey; Istanbul
Technical University <http://www.itu.edu.tr/en/?about> (ITU). The
department has 9 full time academic staff (Professor, Assoc. Prof.,
Asst. Prof. and Inst.), 7 of them are women, and all of them are with
PhDs. ITU has the largest graduate program (MSc and PhD) in industrial
design in the country; 65 of our 101 MSc students, and 38 of of 57 PhD
students are women! We are based in the faculty of architecture, and the
woman ratio in the ranks of academic staff in neighbouring departments
such as Architecture are also similar. In general, it appears that
almost 25% of professors are women in Turkey, which is relatively high
compared to Western Europe and the US. (see Ozbilgin and Healy, 2004
<http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000187910300126X>)
My explanation for this "peculiarity" in the design field is strongly
related to the particularities of social and cultural modernization
processes of Turkey. More than 10 years ago, I raised that issue in a
paper (Er, 2001), and described it as one the pecularities of industrial
design education in the periphery. If I quote myself ( beware it is a
long one!);
"Industrial design in the periphery has its own pluralistic character,
and a distinctly different historical development. Some of the elements
of that differentiated reality may be regarded as real achievements
while many others are simply failures in the name of the development of
this discipline. In this paper, these elements of the differentiated
reality of industrial design in the periphery are called "peculiarities‟
since they have not emerged as expected, and not been observed in the
original development of industrial design in the center. A surprise to
nobody, those peculiarities are generally regarded as sources of
problems in the periphery, but they may also be the sources of
opportunities not only for peripheral countries but also for the whole
of the international design community.
.....
In fact, one of the most striking peculiarities of industrial design in
the periphery is about the gender issue. It is a well-known fact that
industrial design has been a profession and discipline dominated by men
in the central countries since its early days in the beginning of the
20th century. The percentage of female industrial design practitioners
to their male counterparts has always been low. Women are still
under-represented in industrial design courses in countries such as the
USA and the UK. This is generally attributed to a complex relationship
between the gender and the disciplinary culture. Therefore debates about
industrial design in those countries continue to include the gender as
an important issue.
However, the gender profile of industrial design in the periphery is
rather different from that of the center. Although there is no available
statistical data about women industrial designers across newly
industrializing countries of the periphery, it appears that the overall
representation of women in the discipline is higher. For example in
Turkey where the Islamic, traditional culture is expected to suppress
women in society, and in some cases it really does, the number of women
industrial designers appears to be close to the half of total number of
practicing designers. The situation is no different in education. The
percentage of women among industrial design students is about %50 at
Istanbul Technical University. The ratio is similar at other Turkish
universities, as well. More interestingly, the number of women students
tends to increase in every year. Heads of three industrial design
schools, out of the existing five, were women during the 1990s. The
chairperson of Industrial Designers Society of Turkey (ETMK) is also a
woman. The scope and extent of women designers' involvement in
industrial design practice, education and professional
institutionalization are impressive. They set a strong role model for
young women inspiring to become industrial designers. While the
explanation of this rather peculiar case of women industrial designers
in Turkey in comparison to the western or central standards, relates to
the particularities of the Turkish social and industrial development
since 1920s, its implications go beyond the borders of Turkey to provide
an example of different gender composition of industrial design
profession. In this case, it appears that the culture of industrial
design profession and discipline changes due to a different context,
while its primary function remains the same. But what is the
significance of this development in the periphery to the center of
international design world? Is it an anomaly, an accident of history
with no effect on the main character of the discipline itself? It may be
too early to answer such questions, but in the age of global
interaction, the answer will probably be more than an anomaly with a
local and limited effect. To support this argument, it would be
sufficient to remind the case of Ayse Birsel
<http://www.hermanmiller.com/designers/birsel.html>. Today American
office furniture giant, Herman Miller includes the name of a Turkish
woman designer, Ayse Birsel who designed "Resolve‟ and redefined the
office system concept, among the legendary names of Herman Miller design
tradition such as George Nelson and Charles Eames. Birsel received her
undergraduate design education in Turkey in the 1980s, and now is one of
the best-known women industrial designers of the international design
world." (Er, 2001).
Best wishes from Istanbul,
(Mr.) Alpay Er
Er, A. (2001) /Peculiarities of the Periphery: Industrial Design
Education in a Newly Industrialized Context/, R. Cooper and V. Branco
(ed.), 4th European Academy of Design Conference, Design, Designium,
Desire Conference Proceedings, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal
pp. 26-31. (ISBN 9 789727 890248)
r
---
Alpay Er, PhD FDRS
Professor
Head of Department
Dept. of Industrial Product Design
Istanbul Technical University (ITU)
Taskisla, Istanbul 34437 TR
p. +90 212 2931310 x 2201-2332
f. +90 212 2514895
e. [log in to unmask]
w. www.design.itu.edu.tr
---
Executive Board Member (2011-2013)
International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (Icsid)
455 Saint Antoine Quest, SS10
Montreal, Quebec
H2Z 1J1 Canada
t. +1 514 448 4949
f. +1 514 448 4948
e. [log in to unmask]
w. www.icsid.org
On 31.10.2012 20:41, güneş tavmen wrote:
> Hello again,
> As you can imagine I'm not in favour of a patriarchal order that leads women to take care of children or the household. But the reality is and will be at least in short term that women are left with no choice but to look after the kids etc.
>
> And like it or not, it is much more inclined that way in some countries ie Turkey. So looking a bit beyond relatively more gender-equal countries, day nursing etc will be the only way to achieve more women participation in the workforce.
>
> Oh, and ironically I happened to study both chemistry and design. Not so sure if they are any different in that sense.
>
> G.
>
>
>
> On 31 Oct 2012, at 18:12, "McQuillan, Holly" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> Hello all
>> I am also usually a lurker and find it impossible to stay silent. I agree with Cynthia's point.
>> The point made about role models is an interesting one also.
>> The issue for me is the assumption that it is women who should fill the role of carer of children, and that in bearing children we need to expect that our careers will be sacrificed (because we must be primary carer). Neither proposition should be true.
>> And the assertion from anyone (especially on this list) that this is just the way it is so deal with it, "its a mans world" etc, does nothing for men or women and to me shows how deeply ingrained sexism is.
>>
>> Holly McQuillan
>>
>> Lecturer
>> IDIE
>> College of Creative Arts
>> Massey University
>> New Zealand
>>
>> On 1/11/2012, at 6:40, "Cynthia Lawson" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>
>>> Dear Güneş et al,
>>>
>>> I'm usually just a list lurker, but how stay silence with this provocative thread.
>>>
>>> I would like to respectfully disagree with this idea that "unless working place conditions are more in alliance with the realities of life" because you are insinuating that women need flexible hours and day nursing service for kids. It is precisely this sense, that women need more flexibility, that hurts our careers in the long run.
>>>
>>> Why do you and others assume that it is up for a woman to have this flexibility? And what about same-sex couples? Are we then less inclined to assume who needs that flexibility, and can accept that men could also step in when needed?
>>>
>>> Best,
>>>
>>> Cynthia
>>>
>>> --
>>> CYNTHIA LAWSON | THE NEW SCHOOL
>>> Associate Provost for Distributed and Global Education
>>> Associate Professor of Integrated Design, Parsons
>>>
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