My Gender Assumptions
exploring and undoing unaware gender violence by design
Overview
‘My Gender Assumptions’ is a research project that aims to support designers in identifying the gender assumptions and biases that they bring to their design processes, and in better understanding the performative nature of gender.
It was funded through the “Internship-Carleton University Research Experience for Undergraduate Students” by Carleton University.
A process was designed and piloted with undergraduate Industrial Design students. The materials designed are available here for whoever would like to use them in their classroom or to better understand their own design processes.
keywords: gender, design, design education
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The project started from the interest in understanding how to promote awareness among industrial design students on the implications of design choices and processes on gender identity and related issues. In addition to this, it also aimed to support design students in redesigning their design processes to be more gender-inclusive and prevent unwanted dynamics of oppression.
To achieve these goals, a process was designed to support designers in identifying their gender assumptions and bias in their design processes, and in better understanding the performative nature of gender.
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The project started in May 2021, in a collaboration between Dr. Chiara Del Gaudio (PI) and Amélie Houle, a former 4th year student in the Bachelor Degree in Industrial Design of the School of Industrial Design at Carleton University.
After a guided exploration of some gender issues inherent to the design and the mechanism behind it, Amélie designed, from the perspective of a design student and together with the PI, a process for promoting this awareness and supporting students in rethinking their way of designing.
The process has been recently piloted with 4th-year Industrial design students.
“This project has been an eye-opening experience for me. It’s provided me with the opportunity to apply what I’ve learned about gendered experiences to the development of a process that guides students through their design process.”
— Amélie Houle
Regarding the whole experience, Amélie says:
“When I first heard of this project, I knew I wanted to be a part of it because, as someone who was assigned female at birth and conditioned to be a woman, I have seen and experienced the consequences of gendered design first-hand. This project has been an eye-opening experience for me. It’s provided me with the opportunity to apply what I’ve learned about gendered experiences to the development of a process that guides design students and designers through their design process. This is done to help them understand their biases and how that affects the perpetuation of harmful gender-based stereotypes through their designs. I hope the outcome of this project will be as impactful for other students as the development of it has been for me.’
This project is supported in part by funding from Carleton University