THE FUTURE
IS FEMALE

You know the chair. The coveted Eames lounge chair. The chair that—more than 70 years after its creation—is still a must-have in any mid-century modern home worth its salt.

Did you also know it was created by a woman?

In 1949, Ray Eames won second prize in MoMa’s Low Cost Furniture Competition. She had co-created the enduringly popular chair with her husband Charles Eames. But … Charles was the only one named in MoMa’s press release about the competition. 

And, in 1991, architect Denise Scott Brown was passed over for the prestigious Pritzker Prize, with it only going to her co-collaborator, Richard Venturi. In 2016, Brown was finally awarded the American Institute of Architects’ Gold Medal.

It’s stories like these, the ones of women leading in the design field—only to be passed over for recognition in favor of their male counterparts—that inspired global luxury group Kering and publisher Phaidon to launch the platform TheWomanMade.com. 

In October, a companion book to the website, Woman Made: Great Women Designers, by Jane Hall, Ph.D., was published. The fully illustrated coffee table book shines a spotlight on women designers of the past, present and future, covering furniture, textile, product and lighting design.