A Glimpse into the Gendered Dynamics in Industrial Design through the Podcast Discourse

Industrial design is a male-dominated profession, though the reasons for its persistent gender disparity have not been as well-researched as in other STEM disciplines. This work analyzes recent podcast discourse for insights regarding gender dynamics in the US industrial design industry. Feminist critical discourse analysis was applied to episodes from two popular industrial design podcasts in which the podcast hosts, who are industrial designers or design educators, interview professional industrial designers. We found that women designers were given less airtime in the podcasts, mentioned less frequently, and spoken of less positively than men designers. Areas where women industrial designers more commonly work, such as toy design, were devalued, while design consultancies focusing on consumer electronics were highly valued. Skills in design that were more closely linked with manufacturing engineering, such as computer-aided design, were also valued more highly than ‘softer’ design skills like user research. Thus, the podcast discourse contributed to the masculinization of the industrial design profession and the devaluing of women in the field. We conclude that in order to foster a more inclusive culture within the discipline of industrial design, the devaluing of women designers and feminized subdisciplines should be acknowledged and addressed.