Women in design: the pioneers and trailblazers

Last International Women's Day, Creative Bloq shared a post highlighting women who are "glass-ceiling-shattering trailblazers" in the present-day design. Meanwhile Core77's Designing Women archive profiles lesser-known female industrial design pioneers from the past. IWD is often used to bring attention to the atrocities happening to women across the world. This is valuable and necessary, but it's important also to shine a light on women's work, women's voices, women's achievements.

And yet, while I definitely do want to celebrate the trailblazers and glass-ceiling shatterers, something about it sits uneasy with me. You might have seen these stunning posters of role models in STEM fields:

Free to print and re-use non-commercially. Bios of each woman and high-res download links here.
They're gorgeous designs, they're inspiring, and they have a lot of firsts: first African-American woman in space, first Chinese woman to win a Nobel Prize, first Saudi Arabian woman to earn a doctorate in biotech, and so on.

Even as we try to highlight women's accomplishments, we can't help but highlight patriarchy as well. Mae Jemison isn't the first African-American woman in space because she's the first African-American woman who was good enough. It's because earlier African-American women of her excellence were barred from entry at every stage. Inequality is a systemic injustice, not a lack of individual heroes.

Should we celebrate these women? Of course! They're inspiring as hell! But women shouldn't have to be the very best in their field just to get a seat at the table – gender equality will only be achieved when 'just okay' women and non-binary people have the same opportunities as 'just okay' men.

– Emma Strybosch