View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by White Rose E-theses Online Access to Electronic Thesis Author: PINAR KAYGAN Thesis title: The Gendering of Industrial Design in Turkey as Technology-Related Work: Exploring the Narratives of Professionals Qualification: PhD This electronic thesis is protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. No reproduction is permitted without consent of the author. It is also protected by the Creative Commons Licence allowing Attributions-Non-commercial-No derivatives. If this electronic thesis has been edited by the author it will be indicated as such on the title page and in the text. The gendering of industrial design in Turkey as technology-related work: Exploring the narratives of professionals Pınar Kaygan Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Sociological Studies, The University of Sheffield May 2012 2 Contents Acknowledgements v Abstract vii List of Tables ix List of Figures ix Chapters 1. Introduction 1 2. Gender and Technology-Related Work 8 2.1. Conceptualising gender in the study of technology-related work 8 2.1.1. Sex, gender and gender role theory 8 2.1.2. Gender as an unstable, complex and multiple concept 11 2.1.3. Gendered occupations and organisations 13 2.1.4. Mutual shaping of gender and technology: symbols, structures and identities 15 2.2. Feminist technology studies on gender and technology-related work 17 2.2.1. Technology as gender neutral 18 2.2.2. From the ‘woman problem in technology’ to the ‘technology question in feminism’ 19 2.2.3. Masculine culture of technology 20 2.3. Gendering of technology-related work 23 2.3.1. The masculine image of the technological worker 23 2.3.2. The hard/soft dualism in technological professions 25 2.3.3. Managing the mismatch between gender image and professional image 29 2.4. Conclusion 32 3. Feminist Perspectives on the Profession of Industrial Design 34 3.1. The industrial designer’s work 34 3.2. Feminist concerns with industrial design 37 i 3.2.1. Women’s status in design professions 37 3.2.2. The ‘exceptional woman’ narrative: Belle Kogan’s story 39 3.2.3. The notion of ‘feminine sensibility’ in design 41 3.2.4. A need to shift from women to gender 44 3.3. Conclusion 46 4. Women’s Status in Technology-Related Professions in Turkey 48 4.1. Women’s participation in the labour force in urban Turkey 48 4.2. Women in professional occupations in Turkey 51 4.3. Women in technology-related professions in Turkey 56 4.4. Industrial design in Turkey 59 4.5. Conclusion 64 5. Methodology 67 5.1. Research questions 67 5.2. Feminist research and methodology 69 5.2.1. Emphasis on personal experience 70 5.2.2. Acknowledging the role of the researcher 73 5.2.3. Non-exploitative research relationship 75 5.3. Research method 77 5.3.1. Some key terms: narrative, story and general statements 78 5.3.2. Narrative research as a feminist method 80 5.3.3. Narratives regarding professional life 82 5.3.4. Credibility and transferability of narrative research 84 5.4. Locating participants 86 5.5. Eliciting narratives 91 5.6. Research relationship and ethical issues 92 5.7. Analysing narratives 97 5.8. Conclusion 101 6. Office Stories: Gender and Occupation Dualisms in Interdisciplinary Relations 102 6.1. Beginning a career as an industrial designer in the Turkish industry 102 6.1.1. Lack of recognition and demand in industry prior to the 2000s 103 6.1.2. Expansion of the industrial design market during the 2000s 106 ii 6.2. The experiences of gender in/equality in the pursuit of a career in industrial design 108 6.2.1.The attitudes of employers and managers 112 6.2.2. Division of labour among team members 117 6.3. Status of industrial designers and interdisciplinary work settings 120 6.4. The occupational image of industrial design 123 6.4.1. “I was expecting you to have blue hair”: an unconventional professional image 123 6.4.2. Doing ‘arty’ work: association with ‘aesthetic contribution’ and femininity 128 6.4.3. “Design is not a job done to earn money” 138 6.5. Intertwining of ‘being a woman’ and ‘being a designer’ in the experience of inferiority 141 6.6. Conclusion 146 7. Shop Floor Stories: Gendered Relations with Blue-Collar Workers 149 7.1. Significance and visibility of individual gender on the shop floor 149 7.1.1. Resistance to women’s presence on the shop floor 151 7.1.2. Rejecting taking orders from women 156 7.2. Defining the ideal image of the professional worker on the shop floor 158 7.3. Women’s competence on the shop floor: “As a woman you have to prove yourself” 164 7.3.1. Stereotypical family roles: a mother, sister or daughter 167 7.3.2. “I’m not a typical woman” 170 7.4. Diversity in experience: the relevance of ‘when’ and ‘where’ women work 173 7.5. Conclusion 176 8. Conclusion 179 8.1. The gendering of the industrial designer’s work 181 8.1.1. Understanding gender, technology and work 185 8.1.2. Methodological issues 190 8.1.3. Industrial design research and practice 192 8.2. Routes for future research 194 iii References 197 Appendices 224 Appendix A: Interview schedule 224 Appendix B: Quotes in original language 227 iv Acknowledgements Pursuing a PhD project is a long journey, both exhausting and fun. Looking back now, I can see that I was never alone during this journey. It is a pleasure to thank the many people who helped and supported me along the way. First and foremost I offer my deep gratitudes to my primary supervisor, Susan Molyneux-Hodgson, for her support, guidance and encouragement in every stage of this thesis, and for sharing my enthusiasm and excitement about my work. I thank my second supervisor, Zoe Irving, for her support, particularly for her detailed and constructive comments on the drafts of this thesis. I want to express my warm and sincere thanks to Yıldız Ecevit, who did not only introduce me to feminism, but also inspired me with her passionate approach to feminist work in Turkey, where, as feminists, we definitely have much to do. I would also like to thank Bahar Şener-Pedgley, Owain Pedgley and Doğancan Özsel, whose support and help during my applications for a PhD in the UK was invaluable. I thank Gülay Hasdoğan, Çiğdem Kaya, Ateş Gürşimşek and Kunter Şekercioğlu for providing me with a long list of industrial designers most of whom participated in this thesis, and Ayşegül Şeker Ilgın and Soner Ilgın for accommodating me in their home during my stay in Istanbul for fieldwork. I also want to express my indebtedness to the participants of this study, whose narratives made this thesis possible. I thank my mother, Emine Güneyi, and my sister, Berrak Şekeryapan, for always being there and supporting me. It is great to have Osman Şişman, whose sincere friendship and encouragement has been invaluable. I have also been fortunate to come across very nice people during my stay in Sheffield. I thank Nicki Schiessel, Lei Jie, Peixing Dong, Aline Gaus and Natalija Jarosenko for being such good friends, for all the fun, laughter, delicious food and conversations we have shared during these years. Many thanks to Jessica Baily for her careful corrections and useful comments on my writings. v Lastly, and most importantly, I am very grateful to my dear husband, Harun Kaygan, for the tricky questions and detailed critiques in every stage of this thesis; for knowing how to make me smile even in the most stressful moments during this study, and for his believing in me even more than I did. vi Abstract This thesis aims to contribute to a better understanding of gender asymmetry persisting in technology-related work on two grounds. First, unlike previous studies which have mainly been concerned with male-dominance in, and masculine culture of, technology-related work, this study focuses on the industrial design profession, and its distinctive situation in Turkey, where there is neither a significant numerical gap between female and male industrial designers, nor a strongly gendered occupational culture. Secondly, it draws together two separate bodies of work, namely feminist technology studies and feminist organisation studies, suggesting that gender inequality in technology-related work can be understood neither in isolation from the other concerns of organisational life (e.g. access to power and privilege, definitions of organisational roles and responsibilities), nor without taking into account the association of technology with masculinity. Adopting a feminist social constructionist approach, this thesis conceptualises gender as a process in which work is patterned through distinctions between masculine and feminine. Within this perspective, it draws on interviews conducted with 20 female and 12 male industrial designers from various industries in Turkey to explore to what extent and in what ways industrial designers’ work experiences are patterned by gender. Stories collected through these interviews are analysed using a thematic narrative approach. The analysis shows that, first, interdisciplinary relations, particularly with engineers, is an important site of gendering through which the occupational image of industrial design is associated with femininity and women; and second, this gender association is closely linked to the inferior status of designers among professional workers. In women’s stories, the inferior status associated with being a designer is also intertwined with being a woman, creating a double problem in the interdisciplinary office environment.