“The Designer Is on Her Side”: The Industrial Designers Institute (IDI), the Housewife, and the Politics of Feminine Participation in Industrial Design Magazine, 1957

In October 1957, the Industrial Designers Institute (IDI) staged its fourth Annual Conference on the theme of “the consumer.” This article examines the mediatory role played by Industrial Design (ID) magazine in its reporting of the event as it focused on the contribution of a panel of housewives, declaring “the designer is on her side.” Bringing this report into contrast with the original IDI brochure, the article considers the role of ID as an agent of polemical design discourse, editing the IDI program, amplifying the female voices, and quieting those of the male experts. This runs counter to the prevailing narrative of professionalization in industrial design, in which male expertise is traditionally privileged over that of female expertise. By examining levels of interaction and agency between these two agents of professional design discourse, this article reveals diverging attitudes toward feminine participation in industrial design.