This article explores the issue of gender assumptions in the workplace, specifically into the issues of office furniture and how there has been a clear separation between genders in manufacturers when creating office furniture. They go on to describe how executive chairs were designed to fit men and secretary ones were designed for women. This clear indoctrination of gender roles into the workplace is very harmful for women as it clearly sees them as unable to achieve these higher-level jobs and should instead be involved as a secretary. This is also apparent with the old, standardized desk heights as they were designed for the average size of women at the time which excluded a large amount of people regardless of gender. One company decided to have a large chart of different sizes of chairs and desks as well as a separation of gender which on a surface level seems progressive, but on a deeper level it continues to hammer in gender norms. The office chair is the closest piece of furniture to reflecting the human body as every aspect has something to do with the body and its importance cannot be understated as it must be applicable to everyone regardless of averages or gender.
The issue of gendered office furniture is an interesting topic that has impacted the workplace for decades. However, this issue stems farther than the simple white color office spaces. It extends to schools as well because gender separations have been imbedded in educational institutions since they first began. An older educational space like the University of Oregon is bound to have some parts that are made with the idea of men being there instead of everyone being there. It extends to bathrooms having to be revamped, furniture being changed, or even the names of buildings being changed because certain parts of their lives were problematic. The Knight Library stands tall as a strong central building at the University of Oregon. It has a lot of history rooted in it but often times with history, it can be problematic. Some aspects of the library fall into this problematic lens but the University is clearly taking steps to improve the older buildings on campus as well as implementing changes into new buildings that are made on the campus. 