Gendered Furniture
Week 7
Kaufmann-Buhler, Jennifer. “If the Chair Fits: Sexism in American Office Furniture Design.” Journal of Design History, June 14, 2019, 1-17.
Stay in Your Lane: the design decisions governing people in offices and museums
The main point of Jennifer Kaufmann-Buhler’s article, If the Chair Fits: Sexism in American Office Furniture Design, is that office furniture designed from the 1960s through the 1990s perpetuated gendered office roles and hierarchy. Kaufmann-Buhler argues that the...
Seats Leading to Innovation, Design, Education, and Aspiration.
The chair is one of the most complex yet prevalent design elements within a human’s everyday life. Especially, when we consider the human factors from a gender-based perspective. Jennifer Kaufmann Buhler discusses this important topic within design because there is...
Inclusive Design Downtown
Summary In the article titled "If the Chair Fits: Sexism in American Office Furniture Design" by Jennifer Kaufmann-Buhle, she explains the imbalance of gender inclusive design specifically in the workplace. The workplace is already a historical space of inequality....
An open space with universal furniture
Summary: Jennifer Kaufmann-Buhler's "If the Chair Fits: Sexism in American Office Furniture Design" delves into the subtle perpetuation of gender bias and hierarchies through office furniture design. The study examines how different chair typologies, found in...
The Deterrents of an Un-comfy Chair
If the chair fits: Sexism in American Office Furniture Design READING SUMMARY: This article dives into the idea of gendered body and how office furniture design reaffirmed it along with sexism and gendered assumptions of labor. This can clearly be seen when...
Furniture Around Us
The design of American office furniture style design in 1960 to early 1990 incorporated the gendered factors of bodies and stereotyped labor. Furniture design began following the stereotypical gender role and overly detailed designs from the gender of our bodies....
Vero Espresso House All Inclusive
In Jennifer Kaufmann Buhler's article “If the Chair Fits: Sexism in American Office Furniture Design," she argues that furniture design has been bias towards male workers. She looks back at the history of furniture design and argues that furniture design throughout...
Decline, Design, and Comfort Over Time
The article this week, "If the Chair Fits," talks about the issue of sexism in office furniture design in the United States. The article discusses how office furniture, mostly chairs, have traditionally been designed with a bias toward male users, ignoring women's...
Furniture & Gender Norms
Summary In the article “If the Chair Fits: Sexism in American Office Furniture Design”, author Jennifer Kaufmann-Buhler describes how American office furniture in the 1960’s-1990’s was based on gendered ideas about labor. She claims that through an analysis of...
Discriminatory Furniture Design
Reading Summary: The reading "If the Chair Fits: Sexism in American Office Furniture Design" by Jennifer Kaufmann-Buhler examines how office furniture, particularly chairs, serves as a visual representation of hierarchical and gendered differences in the workplace....
Furniture Stereotypes in Cheba Hut
Reading Summary: In Jennifer Kaufmann-Buhler’s article, “If the Chair Fits: Sexism in American Office Furniture Design,” she discusses how office furniture design in the twentieth century was used to express sexism within office work and the gendered hierarchy of...
Gender and hierarchical balance in furniture: Vero Espresso House
READING SUMMARY In the article “If the Chair Fits: Sexism in American Office Furniture Design” the authors address gender inequalities and biases that exist in society by explaining it with executive furniture. Furniture in the workplace assumes and idealized...