Designing A Better Future: Why Women-Centric Design Education Is Key

We’re at the close of 2023 and women around the globe are having their moment: a long-awaited one, that too. Women today are leading MNCs, spearheading campaigns and single-handedly bringing about silent revolutions in the workspace. By the looks of it, this is not just a moment but an era which is here to stay. Whether it is women-led movies or women-led start-ups, women are here to own their space (or are they?).

In the design industry, thankfully, gender has never been a question for your credibility. There’s always been space at the table for you, no matter who you identify as and what your gender is. Talent and creativity supersede all gender biases for most of us designers.

Whether you are Anamika Khanna or Sarita Handa, Sasha Shinde or Sunita Shekhawat, your work as a designer is respected, valued and applauded. However, while certain fields in design are dominated by women, (I am talking interior, fashion, textile and jewellery) a majority of them still don’t have significant contributions by women design thinkers and thought leaders.

Why Barriers To Women Exploring Career In Design Prevail

Today, with UI UX taking the world by storm, the gaming industry booming and Generative AI changing the world as we know it, there’s immense scope for growth at the intersection of design and technology but not enough explorations are being carried out by women.

A massive barrier to women entering these verticals of the design industries is the lack of representation and women mentors in leadership roles. Due to a lack of access to resources and mentorship every step of the way, women steer away from an unknown path due to the less-talked-about “imposter syndrome”. Data says that a lot of women have the constant feeling of being “out of place” in a male-dominated industry. This includes but is not limited to industries like furniture or product design.

A problem with regard to game design, for example, as a career is that there’s a non-perception of women as a target audience in gaming. This results in a lack of representation of women in the gaming world. Most games are built for the heterosexual male gamer. This further leads to fewer women entering this “male-dominated” vertical of design even though 43% of gamers in India are women out of which 56% are from non-metro cities (as per data from DW and Business Today).

While it’s safe to say that representation matters, the pay gap in the design industry is not to be missed either. This further leads to fewer women taking up this challenging path.

Various industrial, product and tech verticals of design face similar problem statements where the workforce may be women-dominated but senior-level roles have a bias toward men. A study by the Design Council in the UK states that while 70% of the workforce in the design industry could be women, only 15% of them are Creative Directors.

As a design community, a fair balance of power and opportunities for women is non-negotiable if we don’t want to create a “man’s world” for our future generation. Right from the classroom, design needs to be centered around inclusiveness and a fair balance needs to be encouraged. Designing, after all, is identifying a problem and solving it. Lack of women representation in various verticals of design? Looks like a problem statement calling for a curriculum redesign (no pun intended)!

Having said that, women in leadership roles in design would enable us to break the glass ceiling and inspire so many women designers to chase their dreams! It would give young female designers access to mentors who they can look up to, reach out to and learn from. It would also allow for diversity in businesses and help get unique perspectives to design a balanced and inclusive tomorrow.

Authored by Shivangi Lahoty, Founder and Chief Creative Officer, Designershala

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