Connection
Designing space — for growth Advocating for change by first understanding where we stand today
A global pandemic. Work-from-home challenges. Self-isolation. Financial uncertainty. Mental health struggles. A looming presidential election. And now another (filmed) instance of police violence against a Black American. As one of our Women+ in Design Pittsburgh community members came to realize, “My response of ‘I don’t have time for this’ comes from a place of privilege.” Grappling In the wake of George Floyd’s killing by police and the resounding demands for racial justice, the women of W+iD PGH were rattled like so many others and reckoned with how to appropriately respond as people, allies, designers, and leaders of a community dedicated to equity. As an organization, W+iD PGH has been clearly committed to fighting for equity when it comes to gender in our profession, and although our name does not as explicitly state it, we are also committed to advocating for racial equity and social justice. Our community is composed of female architects, interior designers, landscape designers, graphic designers, and (even) engineers; although we are not affiliated, AIA Pittsburgh supports our work. Architects tend to stay in our comfortable, architectural bubbles, yet these issues of social inequity are deeply ingrained in many design industries, so it is important to have a cross-disciplinary approach to work toward more impactful change within the larger community. We understand that the protests throughout our country are not in reaction to a single event, but to the decades of intentional and systemic racism that pervades our society. We
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also recognize that as a community of “design professionals committed to making our allied industries more diverse, more inclusive, and more equitable,” as it stands today, W+iD PGH is a group of primarily white, privileged women. We must use our privilege, our talents, our resources, and our platform to align with and support historically marginalized people of color, and we are determined to be more intentional in our next steps as an organization. The informal nature of our organization — with a decentralized leadership, no board, no dues — positions us to respond quickly, yet purposefully, to support our community. Thus far, our lack of official structure has worked well for us, allowing us to swiftly convene, make decisions, and act. There is a balance of honesty, trust, and empathy in this group of women that is categorically unique and unlike any organization I have ever been a part of. Reckoning We knew our community was eager to act, but most of us did not know where to start. As a first step in an effort to offer support to our community and as an opportunity for growth, we pivoted a regularly scheduled Breakfast Club into a series of small-group conversations to build upon our lacking skills, better understand the historical inequities within our society, encourage those within our organization to scrutinize ourselves, uncover our shortcomings as allies, explore tools for important and often uncomfortable conversations, and learn how to confront racism directly. The event involved about 70 women in seven virtual small-group discussions over the