Jul 13
My insights about women in the CSS world
2004 at 02.07 am posted by Veerle Pieters
There’s a lot of talk these days about where the women of CSS are. Molly is asking, Douglas Bowman is asking,… Why are there far less women then men in this field? Maybe there are women out there but they are less vocal or haven’t reached the “celebrity” status as some men do. Of course I haven’t been around long enough so my time might still come where people will remember my name who knows. Also I’m still learning myself, so I’m far from an expert (yet). I can only yell “hello?! I’m here” but if you don’t get heard then I’m one of the many women in this CSS world.
But to be honest this isn’t really an “issue” to me. To understand my tinkering I’m going to tell you my personal experience regarding this matter. Back in 1996 I felt a bit of a loner on that field and I have to confess I took advantage that I’m a girl to get my business up and running. Since I didn’t have any real marketing budget I had to take any opportunity that came along and it worked. Things have changed since then, web design did become so popular around 1999-2000 that it was “sexy”. These days it isn’t so glamorous anymore, it even has a bit of a non-professional bad taste sometimes, but that’s another story that I might get back to some day…
Personally I never felt discriminated in any way, people always judge me by my work. So far I didn’t receive any weird looks or remarks, like “are you really sure you’re up for it?” or get the feeling that people judge me by my gender. A lot of the time I’m working on big projects were I have to work with different partners, developers, and I’m the designer in that process. I deliver the GUI and the HTML template (since this year XHTML/CSS). Most of the time I get the feeling that the developers are getting all the credit at the end or even during the development, design seem to be such small part in the entire process. Thing is in most cases I deliver validated templates and I see them being messed up by developers. They don’t care about closing tags because of the fact that they know that it is covered by I.E., inline styling instead of adding it to the external CSS,… Luckily the opposite is also true, there are developers that take pride in their work and this makes working with these people a blessing. But so far they are the minority, too bad :-(
Maybe it’s just me but I also get the feeling sometimes that when I’m mentioning that I’m a graphic/web designer I must fight an uphill battle in convincing that my programming skills aren’t bad. It’s a sad truth that some of them have this fixed idea that graphic designers can’t handle coding, they only stick to layout and that’s it. Alright, I know a lot of them do, but it’s silly that people jump to conclusions too fast. Luckily my skills are good enough to prove otherwise. My feeling is that it is harder to prove yourself as a graphic/web designer, then to “fight” the fact that you are a woman. For me it’s not a fight, I see all the people I work with as colleagues and don’t think in gender terms at all. But I can’t deny it would be great to see my name up there with those boys :-P
14served
1
Thank you very much for sharing these thoughts, it is always interesting to get an insight into the female side of the industry. I think we can all relate, myself included, to the fact that often times “web designer” does not begin to cover the complexities and skills of our profession. I guess it’s just one of those things… I feel your pain on the developer issue, you would think they have never heard the term web standards!
2
Hi,
Your sex is completely, absolutely IRRELEVANT!!
I have no idea how I found you (your site). However, I’m so glad I did. I enjoy my daily visits. It’s ALWAYS been informative, educational, enjoyable, and highly rewarding.
Keep up the great work. And great success!!
3
I never felt discriminated in any way, people always judge me by my work.
Not discriminated ... and even recognised as one of the Power Rankings list of the top 10 most influential bloggers on Whitespace !
Proficiat !
4
You’re up there as far as I’m concerned. :-p
5
Thanks so much guys (? I guess??). This is really a big motivator, and getting on the list at Whitespace is icing on the cake for me :-)
6
I just saw you listed on Whitespace. That’s pretty cool. :) Off topic question - are you going to be upgrading to EE?
7
Sue, yes indeed cool, never thought I would be mentioned there so fast. I’m still learning myself ;-)
I will change to EE in time… but right now time is really an issue. I’m currently re-designing our business website and that takes all of my free (besides blogging). But I want to combine my upgrade to EE together with a re-design, probably somewhere in the Fall ... I hope, not good in planning my own project, clients come first ;-)
8
I saw Doug’s post and it made me think about how I had failed to link to any female designers on my own blog. It’s hard finding them because a lot of people don’t link to female designers. I can say now, however, that you have been added to my list of design blogs.
9
Hi Veerle
I must be really dense as I didn’t realise you were a woman! Not that it makes the slightest difference to the way I see your work or your blog, but you’d have thought I’d have noticed.
Sorry :-(
10
@Kim, thanks for adding me to your list :-)
@Andy, you’re not the first ;-) And here is me, thinking that people are inclined to look at pictures first… Hm ? ... Maybe some inspiration for a new article? :-D I’ll need an “About” in my next design ;-)
11
FWIW, the photo is what helped me determine you are female. :)
12
I did notice the picture at the top of the page but I thought you just liked pictures of attractive women.
You don’t suppose Zeldman is really a woman as well do you?
;-)
13
Andy, hehe this is so funny, maybe this is a typical male thing? :-)) Most men seem to think the picture is there to attract visitors.... and all I wanted to do is making myself clear thinking it would be obvious this way ;-)
About Zeldman, maybe he was in a previous life? And now we have discovered the deeper meaning of the lady pictures :-D
14
Hi, I didn’t know that was you in the photo either. It’s quite subtle.
I think more designers should have pictures of themselves. I have quite a big one (really just because I think it’s funny) on my about page.
The fact that you’re a woman means nothing from a professional point of view. There’s a lot of female designer blogs I read without really thinking ‘she’s a woman’ - rather it’s a case of ‘this designer writes interesting articles’.
Anyway, keep up the great writing. I’ve been reading your blog for a few months and I’m impressed so far.