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With the constant questioning of women’s rights around the world and still today, we are well aware that some of the rights are still sensitive and unstable. The group CBA means to fight against gender discrimination and sexism and do believe that design is an extraordinary tool to shape the world into a better place, both for women and men.
Thus, CBA launched a campaign in March highlighting the women and men who fight gender inequality on a daily basis and the role of design in the inclusion of women.
We have sought to analyse the theme of women’s rights from all angles, in order to enlighten and raise public awareness.
CBA Paris launched an interview campaign highlighting employees and their experiences as women or men in the world of work and their perceptions of gender inequality. Here are a few questions they answered:
Margaux Lhermitte, Head of Retail & Architecture
Anthony Charton, Art Director
Léa Richard, Project Manager Assistant
Laurence Bethines, Brand Strategist
Nathalie Aupetit, Senior Artistic Director
Barbara Duavy, Managing Partners & Head of Culture CBA B+G, looks back on her experience as a woman in the professional world and especially as a board member. A touching, transparent and necessary testimony still today!
An interesting look at her childhood, her schooling and the objectives of CBA B+G in terms of people, culture, diversity and ESG, in the long run.
Thank you Barbara for your testimony!
In this special month, we decided to focus on the theme of inclusive design. More and more brands adopt inclusive design to celebrate accessibility! In order to respond to issues that are still major today as fight against gender discrimination and sexism, celebrate a more intuitive and accessible design and adopt equity thanks to inclusives identities.
In this special month, we decided to focus on the theme of inclusive design. More and more brands adopt inclusive design to celebrate accessibility! In order to respond to issues that are still major today as fight against gender discrimination and sexism, celebrate a more intuitive and accessible design and adopt equity thanks to inclusives identities.
In this special month, we decided to focus on the theme of inclusive design. More and more brands adopt inclusive design to celebrate accessibility! In order to respond to issues that are still major today as fight against gender discrimination and sexism, celebrate a more intuitive and accessible design and adopt equity thanks to inclusives identities.
Carmen Beer, content manager at CBA B+G, highlights the ‘All Bodies are Normal’ trend from our recent Design Trends Report, which has everything to do with empowered women.
Embracing and celebrating the natural shapes and cycles of all bodies is the core of many new brands, designing products & services that speak directly to a target group previously forgotten.
Subjects as the well-being, mental health and acceptation are much more taking into account by brands. Authenticity and transparency is key!
Sandra Garcia, our Managing Director at CBA Spain, took part at the BCREATIVE session of the Barcelona Woman Acceleration Week with the key theme « Impact creativity led by women ».
A keynote about the power of design applied to business strategies to achieve responsible and sustainable growth.
A scene shared with Sisón Pujol, founder and CEO at Nonon Design agency, Ana Fornt, CEO at Group Efebé and Arantxa Bernadí, CEO at Bernadí.
Sandra Garcia, our Managing Director at CBA Spain, took part at the BCREATIVE session of the Barcelona Woman Acceleration Week with the key theme « Impact creativity led by women ».
A keynote about the power of design applied to business strategies to achieve responsible and sustainable growth.
A scene shared with Sisón Pujol, founder and CEO at Nonon Design agency, Ana Fornt, CEO at Group Efebé and Arantxa Bernadí, CEO at Bernadí.
Sandra Garcia, our Managing Director at CBA Spain, took part at the BCREATIVE session of the Barcelona Woman Acceleration Week with the key theme « Impact creativity led by women ».
A keynote about the power of design applied to business strategies to achieve responsible and sustainable growth.
A scene shared with Sisón Pujol, founder and CEO at Nonon Design agency, Ana Fornt, CEO at Group Efebé and Arantxa Bernadí, CEO at Bernadí.
This year in 2023, the International Women’s Rights Day aimed to raise awareness for difficulties women face to access digital jobs all around the world. The hashtag #EmbraceEquity, heavily used on social media this month, takes a stand for equity above all else, especially in our digital era. Stick with us to learn more.
According to the Social Builder charity, 73% of digital professionals are men. To denounce the under-representation of women in this field, Social Builder diverts the situation by prohibiting job offers to women, masked by a “gendered content” warning.
A shock awareness campaign for women’s rights. Check it here.
To encourage accessibility, two key themes have been chosen this year:
The two cannot go without each other because: without equity, we cannot achieve equality.
Regardless of the industry, companies are the first on the line who must “put technology for a safer, more sustainable and fairer future”(UN WOMEN).
More and more brands today incorporate the concept of inclusivity into their products’ design or their communications strategy to celebrate accessibility.
Just like the tech sector, design too must raise awareness by adopting strategies for female inclusion.
Through inclusive design, brands today strive to celebrate diversity and empowerment of minorities. Normalizing bodies, de-gendering products or celebrating multiculturalism are part of multiple inclusivity strategies to enable accessibility.
To be consistent with the values of our 3.0 era, brands today are encouraged to:
Design is a powerful tool to strengthen the empowerment of women. How? By creating products and services that meet their needs and allow them to better understand their environment; that is a real power tool. Whether it is the product itself, its packaging, or the communications strategy, brands are invited to give women greater self-confidence.
By involving women in the process of designing products and services that affect them, brands give them a sense of active participation and responsibility. Surveys, interviews or focus groups allow brands to understand the state of mind of consumers and their needs, whether it’s physiological (body), psychological (self-esteem) or social (belonging).
CBA LATAM – our studio in Latin America – was able to support KIMBERLY-CLARK, the American leader in sanitary protection, in the design of an application aimed at having several consumers test sanitary pad formats.
Consumers were invited to take a photo of their underwear to allow artificial intelligence to innovate the adaptability of the pad’s shape.
Thanks to various consumer tests, the brand was finally able to co-create the ideal product with its community. Discover the case here.
60% of girls start playing video games before the age of 10.
60% of girls start playing video games before the age of 10.
The representation of different identities on digital platforms also allows communities to be better highlighted, whether they’re a minority or not.
DOVE, in its “Real Virtual Beauty” campaign (2022), has made it a mission to “challenge the representation of women in video games in order to help make the virtual world a positive space for them”.
The representation of different identities on digital platforms also allows communities to be better highlighted, whether they’re a minority or not.
DOVE, in its “Real Virtual Beauty” campaign (2022), has made it a mission to “challenge the representation of women in video games in order to help make the virtual world a positive space for them”.
With avatars becoming ever-present in the gaming industry, it is a must today to design more inclusive digital spaces by highlighting multiple identities.
A study conducted by DOVE found that 60% of girls start playing video games before the age of 10. On the other hand, female characters in digital spaces are known to be highly sexualized with considerably stereotyped beauty criteria such as: unrealistic body dimensions, or sexualization through clothing, and so on.
Thus, as part of its “Real Beauty in Games” training program, DOVE aims to give video game developers proper education to “create a healthier and more diverse representation of girls and women in video games around the world”.
Results:
In addition to inclusiveness, design also contributes to strengthen empowerment by creating products and services accessible to all women, regardless of their disability, education level or social background. By using intuitive interfaces, design allows women to better understand their environment by considering issues of accessing information.
ORKID, the leader in sanitary protection in Turkey, launched a bold awareness campaign in 2019 against femicide and the social taboos associated with menstruation.
This is the statement of the brand: “In Turkey, sanitary pads are wrapped in newspapers at the time of purchase because of the shame associated with periods. In a society where violence, discrimination and injustice against women fill the newspapers, it is not selling sanitary pads that should be shameful”.
ORKID, the leader in sanitary protection in Turkey, launched a bold awareness campaign in 2019 against femicide and the social taboos associated with menstruation.
This is the statement of the brand: “In Turkey, sanitary pads are wrapped in newspapers at the time of purchase because of the shame associated with periods. In a society where violence, discrimination and injustice against women fill the newspapers, it is not selling sanitary pads that should be shameful”.
ORKID used a unique packaging idea by wrapping pad packs in printed newspapers with headlines referring to the main difficulties faced by Turkish women:
“low employability and political representation, violence of gender and an insufficient literacy rate“.
This new packaging has met unprecedented success in sales while tearing public opinion apart.
ORKID used a unique packaging idea by wrapping pad packs in printed newspapers with headlines referring to the main difficulties faced by Turkish women:
“low employability and political representation, violence of gender and an insufficient literacy rate“.
This new packaging has met unprecedented success in sales while tearing public opinion apart.
In conclusion, design in our era is intended to be a transformative power tool allowing women to speak out, celebrate their inclusion and strengthen their autonomy. Consumers ask brands to design their products considering gender equality issues and the diversity of their needs.
On the other hand, is neutrality now considered old-school in the tone of voice of a brand? Has taking a position become essential in product design or brand communication strategies? To meditate…
Download our Design Trends Report and follow our hottest empowerment design tips!
Check our Women’s Rights Month interviews with our collaborators in our Paris agency. Let’s meet in the comments section!
Written March 27th 2023 by Dilara Cetiner
Since the integration of Oni into CBA Design, I have received many congratulations, and they are usually accompanied by a « Wow, a woman part of the board! ». It took me a while to understand that being part of a minority group brings responsibility. When we manage to break some bubble, we are few and part of a small group, and our mere presence in that place is capable of reverberating and making new dreams possible. This is the power of representation. Bloomberg’s Gender Equality Index 2023 shows that companies that have more female board members have many more female executives across the company. I am happy to be part of that movement.
The consolidation of a People & Culture area in CBA B+G strengthens the objective of consolidating ourselves not only as a reference company in design, but also within our organizational environment, fostering talents and careers, promoting a healthy environment that adapts and evolves over time. It also means taking responsibility in building the desired world. Our ESG goals will drive us in transformation, steadfast in the quest to generate positive impact inside and outside the organization.
This movement of corporations to take a leading role in affirmative actions that accelerate latent transformations in society is essential and urgent. As a woman in leadership who seeks to promote this reality as much as possible, I always ask myself: what made me get this far and be one of the few?
I will not fall for the fallacy of meritocracy, if it exists, it is only after the opportuny(s) … and I realize that I am here because my parents not only put my development as a top priority, but never tried to erase my natural talents or tried to put me in a little box of what a girl should do, study or how to behave.
The most classic story of my childhood, and one that my parents love to tell, is when I made my first petition, at the age of 6. At school, we were informed that our teacher was « leaving ». I, with my capitular letters still crooked, made a document requesting that the teacher stay and made my little classmates sign it. My parents were called to the school. The headmistress wanted to give a kind of warning and scolded my parents, saying that they should teach me « not to question and to follow the hierarchy ». They could have agreed, fought with me, grounded me. But they defended me and suggested that the school should question when they disagree with something, and not the other way around.
I believe this may seem like a one-off case, but it was one of those cases that directs an entire life. My leadership could have been eliminated little by little, from that moment on, if I hadn’t had the support to continue. To have more women in leadership positions, we also need society to show them, from a young age, that this is a possible path. Show them that when their dreams and actions are valued, in adult life they will have more confidence in following their path.
Barbara Duavy, Managing Partners & Head of Culture CBA B+G
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