Designing Beyond the 0.2% International Women’s Day Moment

Often, we design to meet a moment, but this hurts women, and frankly everyone else

You may or may not have noticed that International Women’s Day (IWD) came and went, and my very women’s-focused newsletter failed to acknowledge it. The truth is that I have trouble meeting the moment. Should I acknowledge Diwali, Thanksgiving or something that isn’t part of my lived experience? Which news events should I acknowledge, and from which geography — given that we can move on as quickly as “the moment” passes?

Although I’m grateful for the awareness IWD creates, I struggle with the idea that its existence might allow the world to forget that we are women for the rest of the year too. And while the 0.2% of acknowledgement per year isn’t great (especially as someone for whom it feels like IWD everyday without the hype and celebration) — what’s most problematic for me is that IWD is simply symbolic of how the “0.2%” manifests in Design for Women, of lack thereof, everywhere.

Let me explain by looping back to my struggle with meeting the moment. Looking back at my own formative years, I realised: When we Design for Women today, we must acknowledge their past. I’m troubled by the idea that many design methodologies — in an effort to design “for the moment,” do not factor in the past or the future. This hurts women (and frankly, everyone else).

Clinical psychologist Dr. Lisa Damour says that the reason girls outperform boys at school is the same as why they are left behind at the workplace as adults. If we designed our workplace promotions, for example, by understanding how girls operate and excel, I could imagine that organisational gender inequity would be smaller today. Uber designed to meet our taxi needs in the moment, but didn’t think about safety until later. The fitness app designs for us to workout in the “same” moment everyday, but doesn’t cater to our menstruation or pregnancy needs. Etc.

Because most products and services design to “meet a moment” without understanding the complexity surrounding it, they lose out on truly serving women. To do so, we must look at more than 0.2% of her life in silos. We must map her transitions through life — biologically, socially, and culturally — and see what affects the other. I imagine, there’s a lot to be discovered outside the moment.

This post is an excerpt from Unconforming: a newsletter about Design for Women. Unconforming goes out every two weeks and also shares learnings from experts, job and other opportunities, examples and articles — all to make an impact in the women’s space. Sign up here to get it in your inbox!