The Intersection of Motherhood and Design
Celebrating motherhood with inspiring industrial designers in the industry in the Chicago & Madison area.
During this month of May, we were so excited to celebrate moms all over the world, but specifically moms of industrial design. In our male-dominated industry, motherhood is a difficult conversation to have; there are so many issues that do not get talked about.
In honor of Mother’s Day, we wanted to bring that conversation to the forefront, not only to celebrate moms of industrial design who are continuing to kill the design game but also let women know they are not alone in their struggles with becoming a parent, regardless of where they are in the process. Although the ladies of WIID do not have children ourselves, over the course of the past month, we were able to sit down with some incredible female designers who have stuck it out in the industry and are raising a family while continuing to run studios and companies. Meet Emily, Maureen, Audra, and Stacy. These are their stories.
*Please know. All stories in this article are based on the experiences of the women we spoke to and shared with their permission.
Emily taylor
Emily Taylor is Principal at teenyBIG, a non-profit based in the Chicago, Illinois-area.
Maureen Salazar
Maureen O'Connor Salazar is the Design Director at Itzy Ritzy in Chicago, Illinois.
Audra Norvilas
Audra Norvilas is the Associate Creative Director at Kaleidoscope in Chicago, Illinois.
Stacy Castro
Stacy Castro is the President at Constant LLC in Madison, Wisconsin-area.
The discussion of Maternity Leave
America still does not have any laws around paid maternity leave, so we were not surprised to hear that the male-dominated industrial design industry did not have any guidelines for maternity leave. Most of the moms we talked to were the first mother in their office and because of this, there wasn’t a maternity plan already in place for them.
In negotiating time off, some had to ask their single male boss, someone who is unable to understand the situation from a female perspective, for time off, only to find they did not have a policy in place, or only “had the option of taking disability” (you read that right, pregnancy is considered a disability. Doesn’t that make you cringe?). In all cases, there was one common feeling: companies don't understand the role of a mother and often times fail to take into account the experience of their female employees.
The bottom line is, many maternity plans are, by design, shameful. And this plan shouldn’t only come up once you’re pregnant, it should be talked about and planned well beforehand so you are aware of how much time you will have with your baby. So we would challenge you, even if you don’t plan on having children yourself, to ask your firm or agency, “what is your current maternity plan?”
The Office Culture
We also learned that becoming a mother in industrial design can change your relationship with your coworkers, not only from a work perspective but from a social perspective as well. With new responsibilities, many new parents aren’t able to spend as much time at work as they could before, sometimes causing other employees to question whether the new mom is really committed to her job.
Work culture makes all the difference, especially in firms and agencies where spending long hours at the office is equated with working hard. Stacy, one of the moms we spoke to, said she was asked to take on more responsibility after giving birth and turning it down to prioritize her family “felt like career suicide.” Emily explained it as constantly having to make the decision between taking care of your child or staying to work with your team. She said, “the culture at the consultancy where I was at… it didn’t feel like it was fair or appropriate for me to leave.” Because of this, many moms turned to freelance for something that was more forgiving and understanding of their experience as mothers.
From a social perspective, Emily told us “it felt like there was a line drawn in the cultural sand when it came to employees who had children and those who did not.” Becoming a mother takes a lot of time and energy and as your priorities change, time with coworkers is no longer at the top of the list. There is no longer the option to make spontaneous plans with coworkers as many of these moms were not only the manager at work but at home as well. Not to mention, many social activities in the design industry revolve around alcohol, something expectant and new mothers cannot partake in. Although after-work drinks are not the only way to socialize, it is where a lot of connections are made and relationships are formed. As Audra said, “it’s definitely still possible to form those relationships outside of work, it just takes a lot more conscious planning.”
The challenge of Breastfeeding
For all the moms we talked to, one of the biggest changes and challenges coming back to work was breastfeeding. In our male-dominated field, most of the women we spoke to were the first new mother in their office, meaning their office was never set up to accommodate breastfeeding employees.
Audra said, “one of the things I didn’t anticipate was the amount of time pumping would take out of my daily work schedule and tasks. Secluding myself in a room every 3hrs for 30min at a time resulted in missed meetings, being left out of important conversations, and more or less tethered to the wall, undressed, and surrounded by cords and dangling bottles.”
To add to the awkward breastfeeding experiences, Emily told a story of when she was traveling for work with a client and forgot her breast pump. She was forced to buy a manual pump from the Walmart, where they were doing research and sit in the bathroom while the client and her coworkers continued on. Despite being something all mothers have to deal with, breastfeeding accommodations are still foreign to most industrial design firms. So we would challenge you again, look around your workplace. Do you have a place in your office where a new mother could peacefully and privately pump?
The Intersection of Motherhood and Design
Although many takeaways from these mothers sound negative, many see it as a great selling point for a designer. Moms in industrial design have the unique experience of being not only a woman but a mother. There are so many new products you get to experience first hand that are a constant source of inspiration.
Maureen, who has a child with Down Syndrome, told us that raising a baby with developmental delays taught her so much more about the development stages of a baby. As a baby product designer, she’ll often bring products she’s designing in the studio home with her to test them out with her own children. Emily added that “as a designer, there are just so many opportunities to create new things when you have a kid,” and we should take advantage of that opportunity to design products for women, by women.
The importance of Showing Support
Spending time with these amazing moms of industrial design taught us so much about the experience of having a child in the design industry. The biggest thing we learned, however, is that being a designer mom is a badass title. But they also need support, especially in the beginning, not only from their companies but from our community as well. Unfortunately, it was very difficult for us to find women in the Midwest that were mothers and still working in industrial design.
Many are pushed into designing baby products, and many others opt to pursue their careers independently, either in freelance or by starting their own firm, to have an open schedule. Because many women leave the traditional industrial design industry once they become mothers, there is no example to look towards when thinking about your career long term.
Emily said it was very lonely at first, “it just felt like there was a lack of understanding because there are so few women and of those few women, so few are mothers.” Stacy added that watching her mom, a freelance artist, balance life and work growing up inspired her to do the same. If we want to keep women in the industry, we need to support these women as they grow and become mothers in their careers, continue to show and highlight amazing female designers who are also mothers, and foster company cultures that don’t shame women for prioritizing their families.
*All the stories in this article are based on the experiences of the women we spoke to and shared with their permission.