The values of being in design: Towards a feminist design ontology

Abstract

This article critiques the way in which contemporary western design ontology is constructed, why this affects conceptions of female creative practice and how this impacts on women’s lives. Starting with a personal account of educating female designers, the article aims to unpack the different ways in which ontologically invisible patriarchal and capitalist value systems act on us as designers, aided by processes of embodiment which are essential to design practice. It calls for the “dedesigning” of our ontology as designers through feminist epistemologies and practices which keep questions about transformations, futured by design, in a state of critical plasticity by attending to sociopolitical, socio-economical and ecological ethics whilst keeping issues of gender exclusion at its core.