This study examines gender typing of industrial products in the activity of
industrial design. Thus firstly, the meaning of gender, related theories and gender
stereotypes have been reviewed through the literature survey in order to pinpoint
the stereotypical attributes assigned to men and women through society and
culture. Secondly, the effect of the stereotypical gender attributes on the act of
possessing products have been examined. In return, a literature survey on the
cognitive aspects of design has been conducted in order to question whether these
gender attributes might have a similar impact on the design activity. The findings
of the literature survey pointed towards categorical information processing
theories as an appropriate tool to gender type products and also as a tool to
measure the gender qualities of a product. To test the applicability of the
methodology of categorization a study has been conducted with industrial
designers and industrial design students in which the students were asked to
design gender typed products and industrial designers were asked to rate their
perceptions of genderedness of the designs. The test revealed the existence of a
mental library consisting of categorized images corresponding to stereotypical
gender attributes in the individuals, thus preparing the grounds for the use of this
process in the industrial design activity.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:METU/oai:etd.lib.metu.edu.tr:http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/4/1033323/index.pdf |
| Date | 01 January 2003 |
| Creators | Akata, Akanay |
| Contributors | Hasdosan, Gulay |
| Publisher | METU |
| Source Sets | Middle East Technical Univ. |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | M.S. Thesis |
| Format | text/pdf |
| Rights | To liberate the content for public access |
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