WOMEN IN DESIGN: Women's Tokenism Part 2
**This is the second portion of a two-part article, so be sure to check out the previous portion.**
Happy Tuesday! Hopefully these past two weeks have been incredibly productive, even if they lack much sleep. But now it’s time to take a break and return to our topic, Women’s Tokenism. Last week we defined it and looked at a sports example (go Vols). So how does it appear in other areas?
Take the workplace, for instance. The world of work is full of examples where tokenism exists, but also of examples where it is completely absent. There are some fields where an equal number of men and women work. But there are also fields like ours, which tend to lean one way or the other.
Think about interior design. The field is likely dominated by women, but there are certainly many men out there too. In some cases, it is possible that a firm may hire a man simply for diversity. The opposite is often the case in architecture. Firms tend to be male dominated, with women only recently making appearances. It is equally as possible that a firm may hire a woman simply for diversity. It is also possible that both the interior designers and the architects may choose not to hire a person whose gender is different than that of most of the workers because they do not wish to change (or because the best candidate for the job happens to be the other gender, and sexism had nothing to do with it). The fact of the matter is that, in some situations, tokenism plays a part in the hiring process.
Imagine, once again, that you’re the woman from the last article. You’ve just been hired at an architecture firm full of great employees and coworkers. Because many of the employees are older, the firm consists mostly of men. You’re the new blood, and you’re also a different gender than your coworkers. This is not a serious issue, however, as you get along with your fellow architects (unless you’re in an environment where this does not happen, but hopefully this is a rare case nowadays). Just like at the game, you think it’s pretty cool that you are a part of this club. Maybe you unconsciously think that it makes you better than your contemporaries who work in firms that are more balanced between men and women. Either way, you’re special.
But is this ultimately beneficial? Or have you simply become the token woman in a firm, a mere check on a long list? I’d like to think that you must be awesome, in order to impress these older people with many years of experience. Maybe you’re the beginning of their change of perception, and they’ll hire more women as time goes on. Then you won’t be a token woman anymore, you’ll be a part of a great team with a variety of viewpoints and approaches.
This is the ultimate goal in terms of reducing tokenism. While there are still areas within our fields where tokenism happens, most firms and employers no longer cater to this, choosing instead to hire the employees who will work hardest and contribute the most, regardless of their gender. This is perhaps the most important thing – looking at people for who they are as opposed to whether they fit a tiny box on a checklist.
So in this week of reprieve from work (or at least a little rest), remember that you are not a tiny checklist box. You’re a very talented individual whose gender matters far less than your strengths and personality. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Photo Source: http://oyster.ignimgs.com/wordpress/stg.ign.com/2013/05/pnr_050213_1600.jpg