Design and Feminism: Re-visioning Spaces, Places, and Everyday Things

by Joan Rothschild

Overview

How well do our designed environments—the places and spaces where we live, work, and play—meet our aesthetic and functional needs? Increasingly, the distinction between the spaces considered public and private or work and home is becoming more blurred. As a result, innovative designs are needed to meet the challenges of our ever-changing environment. Our streets, parks, dwellings and tools are designed to a "one-size-fits-all" standard, and the responses of the design community to meet diverse needs have been mixed at best. Design and Feminism offers feminist critiques of these inadequate design standards, and suggest ideas, projects, and programs for change.

The interdisciplinary essays reflect the writers' diverse fields- architecture, planning, industrial and graphic design, and architectural, urban, and design history. Essays cover such subject as rethinking the American city, graphic design and the urban landscape, working at home, theories of women and design, and a trio of essays on industrial designs. A review essay of the literature in these fields- the first of its kind- rounds out the collection.

Contributors are Amelia Amon, Wendy E. Brawer, Cheryl Buckley, Sue Cavanagh, Alethea Cheng, Roberta M. Feldman, Etain Fitzpatrick, Alice T. Friedman, Dolores Hayden, Ghislaine Hermanuz, Barbara Knecht, Ellen Lupton, Maggie Mahboubian, Francine Monaco, Nancy Perkins, Victoria Rosner, Joan Rothschild, Susana Torre, Lynne Walker, and Leslie Kanes Weismann.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813526676
Publisher:	Rutgers University Press
Publication date:	09/01/1999
Pages:	216
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

JOAN ROTHSCHILD is a research associate at the Center for Human Environments at the Graduate School and University of New York. She is the author of Machina Ex Dea: Feminist Perspectives on Technology; and Women, Technology, and Innovation.

Table of Contents

Foreword
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Re-visioning Design Agendas
Feminisms and Design: Review Essay
Expanding the Urban Design Agenda: A Critique of the New Urbanism
Claiming Women's History in the Urban Landscape: Projects from Los Angeles
Graphic Design in the Urban Landscape
Outgrowing the Corner of the Kitchen Table
Shifting the Paradigm: Houses Built for Women
"Special Needs'' and Housing Design: Myths/Realities/Opportunities
Made in Patriarchy: Theories of Women and Design—A Reworking
On Being an Industrial Designer: Rethinking Practice
Women Designers: Making Differences
The Domestication of Space-Age Technologies
Sustainability and the City
Participatory Design at the Grass Roots
Women's Design Service: Feminist Resources for Urban Environments
Re-designing Architectural Education: New Models for a New Century
Afterword
Contributors
Index

What People are Saying About This

Pat Kirkham

This impressive collection of essays by leading scholars and practitioners gives hope for a future where cities, buildings, and objects of daily life will reflect the multifarious needs and desires of women.
—Professor of design history, Bard Graduate Center.

Sherry Ahrentzen

The essays in Design and Feminism range from experiential reflections to critical inquires of contemporary and historical practices; but all pose wonderfully insightful, intriguing, and viable possibilities for revisioning the landscapes of our lives. The book beckons a wide audience, not simply because of the diversity of ideas covered but also because the language is refreshingly clear and free of jargon.
—Professor of architecture, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Rosalind Williams

There is one central message in this stimulating collection of essays: the built world would work better for everyone if women were more involved in its design.
—Dean of students and undergraduate education, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.