Lists and lists

I've been following an amazing discussion on Personism about the exclusion of women in the creative field.

What's incredible is that once the issue was poked, it quickly exposed a gaping ignorance. I guess I was particularly interested in this because a similar but more egregious incident happened to me earlier this year, though my incident dealt with race, not gender. Both are rather shameful given this moment in history and the context of our design work.

Issues of discrimination may not seem directly related to the realm of urbanism, but then again, doesn't it? It takes actual people to push the thinking and do the work in urban development, transportation, architecture, planning, and design, with its many stages from concept to construction. If this is indeed a prevailing atttitude, how can we advise clients and communities that are starting to put together their large-impact, physical expression of identity and culture? How could we claim to perceive their identity and culture in a constructive manner?

I had promised myself this year that I would try to contribute more to other outlets, especially those whose rosters may be more privileged in some way...here goes. And if you want to see the magnificent list of women that Jen Bekman of Personism and many, many contributors have put together to show Tokion that its conference on creativity could have been much more balanced, go here.