Dear Bonnie: Women of Washington + Young in Youngstown

Editor's Note: Dear Bonnie is our truth-telling advice column from Bonnie Siegler. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do, and invite our readers to submit their questions directly to: [email protected]

Dear Bonnie,
Should women boycott or even make the smallest protest in regards to the UnderConsideration Brand New Awards this year because it has an all male judging panel? What do you think? Is this just one of those rare occurrences or is it really that hard to find qualified women design professionals who are willing to be on judging committees? See below for a comment someone left on the call for applications addressing the gender issue, and the response of Armin Vit, whose company runs the competition.

Signed,
Women of Washington

Commenter: "Are there no notable female branding professionals suitable as jurors? Just feeling oh so slightly male dominated, no?"

Armin Vit: "This is the way the wind blew this year. First year we had four women and one man; second and third years, 2 women and 3 men each. This year, it's all men. We do what we can on gender representation based on availability and we also have little to no control on what gender is the client selected by two of the designers. What matters, in the end, is that someone CAPABLE is judging the work, regardless of chromosome disposition."

Dear Women,
I am going to have to put aside my long-held belief that women should rule the world instead of men in order to answer your question as un-biasedly as I can.

I am also a firm believer in affirmative action. Under representation happens because too often people in charge gravitate towards people who are like themselves. Affirmative action is necessary to force people to leave their “comfort zones” (I’m being nice here) and accept, hire, promote, and invite people who are different than them. In some situations, it has worked, and in others, not so much. So, we must carry on and not give up as we continue to strive for equal opportunity because it is one of the only reasons there has been any progress for women and minorities.

I would feel a lot better about this particular example if Armin’s response was a bit less defensive and a bit more remorseful about putting forth an all male jury in 2014. I imagine the entires will divide pretty equally along the chromosomal disposition lines, which naturally suggests that the juries should do the same. I totally get that you can’t always get everyone you want, but I would like to think that in this day and age, the Brand New team tried really, really hard to make it a mixed jury. If I were them, I would have changed the rules this year — have six or seven jury members instead of five, for example — so that a woman could be on the panel, but that might be too affirmative for them. Let’s see how they make up for it next year. The only way this kind of inequity will change is if we continue to hold people responsible when they don’t do the right thing.

We also should probably judge corporations, organizations, and juries on their history rather than on single moments in time. That said, the Brand New Awards jury's history totals 12 men to 8 women over 4 years. This isn't a terrible track record, but clearly, Armin and his team can still be doing a better job and I hope that next year they will seek to close the gap even further. However, I don’t think a 3:2 ratio is something to boycott. I want equal representation on every board, every jury, and every management team, but we shouldn’t demonize people who are trying and conscious of the situation because they have an off year.

Finally, while equal representation should be actively and intensely pursued, I think we must also focus our energy on securing equal pay for women (we currently make $0.81 on the dollar). My dream is that in a matter of time this week's column will seem incredibly outdated. Both with regards to your question about this skewed jury, but also with respect to the next question (advice specifically geared towards female designers), which I hope, sooner rather than later, will seem oddly old-fashioned as well.



Dear Bonnie,
What advice would you give to young, ambitious female designers based on your career and life experiences? Have you struggled as a female employer? How?

Sincerely,
Young in Youngstown

Dear Y in Y,
I would give the same advice to young ambitious female designers that I would give to young ambitious male designers. No matter what, your mission for the first five to ten years of your career is to figure out the kind of work that makes you truly happy and satisfied and hopefully, love your job. That might mean trying out a couple of different situations before you find the one that fits like a glove. And, if you don’t find it, you will probably have at least formed enough opinions to think about the possibility of starting your own company and make it just so. We don’t do what we do for the money, so it’s important that you're passionate about it.

In answer to your second question, I have definitely struggled as an employer and a business owner and, maybe I'm just lucky, but I don’t think it's because I'm a girl. It’s just a hard knock life. My issues have been about getting good work, doing good work, and supporting my team in the way to which they have become accustomed. As an employer, my issues have been along the lines of finding smart, funny, talented designers (please send your portfolio to [email protected] if you’re out there!) more than any issues having to do with my gender. 

Now, go get a job and kick some ass!


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