Women in Design

by Anne Massey

A comprehensive history of women designers working internationally from 1900 to the present day. 


Women designers have created some of the most important objects in history. By revealing the untold stories of female design pioneers, this wide-ranging introduction celebrates their crucial role in the history of modern processes of making.


Arranged chronologically, this guide considers the structural barriers to professional success and how women overcame these hurdles, charting the works of designers including Anni Albers at the Bauhaus, the architects Eileen Gray and Zaha Hadid, interior decorator Elsie de Wolfe, and fashion icon Mary Quant. Focusing on the key subjects of architecture, craft, fashion, furniture, graphics, interior, product, and textile design, author Anne Massey explores the link between early twentieth– century revolutionary design and lifestyle, as well as the idea of shopping and consumerism as liberatory. Massey also discusses the important contribution of designers during and after World War II, along with design activism, design collectives, and the current success of women working transnationally in architecture and design.


Illustrated throughout, Women in Design is the definitive history of women designers working around the world over the past 120 years. 

Genres: Design

314 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 3, 2022

About the author

Anne Massey is professor of design and culture at Huddersfield University and professorial fellow at the University of the Creative Arts, England. She is the author of The Independent Group: Modernism and Mass Culture, 1945–1959; Interior Design Since 1900; and six other books. She has edited five volumes, including A Companion to Contemporary Design Since 1945, and was founding coeditor of the journal Interiors: Design, Architecture, Culture. She lives in London.

Reviews

[Nina · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great overview over the all too often overlooked women in areas of decoration, textile and fashion design, product design, industrial design interior design, architecture and more. The author does not only describe the designers, but also the conditions that, through the ages, have made it difficult for women to establish themselves in this field, and how women pioneers have contributed to changing these conditions.
It is quite shocking, though sadly not surprising, that behind some of the world famous male designers stood a female partner or collaborator, often uncredited and omitted from records. I can only imagine how much work the author had to put into digging up this kind of information.
The book is mostly focused on designers in the English-speaking world - it would be interesting to have a more international view on the subject.

[ezgi]

gözüme zor bi sektör kestirmişim lol

[Mara Gold · Rating 4 out of 5]

This books is great overview of women in design, not extremely detailed but it has enough depth to understand a bit about each designer. The author writes about many incredible women of history and the themes and topics are really diverse.

One thing confused me about this book, the lack of many very important Italian designers (Gae Aulenti, Anna Castelli Ferrieri, Cini Boeri to just name a few..) and the fact that author at some point says that Italy didn’t really have a design education and it explained the lack of women in design. What?!