Sewing with the wrong plumbing

I finished my sociology paper about gender disparity is fashion design schools a few weeks ago. I would have written about it here sooner, but I wanted to wait to until I got it back with a grade and comments from my professor. I got 44 out of 50 points. It is not a very good grade, but I do not think it was a good paper so I can’t complain. I knew what points I wanted to make, and I had a lot of good data, but I had a lot of trouble using sociological concepts to support my arguments. My professor thought I had some good ideas, but he felt I failed to draw strong links between cause and effect.

I can sew a shirt, but I cannot form a proper sociological argument. That’s OK. I want to be a designer, not a sociologist. I enjoyed the class, but if it was not required I would not have taken it. I will not bore you with the full text of my paper; I will just sum up the main points.

Only a small percentage of fashion design students are men. Fewer than 4% of bachelor’s degrees awarded to apparel design students at UW-Stout go to men, and other schools have similar percentages. The fashion industry is generally perceived to be one for women and gay men. Most straight men wish to avoid the stigma of working in such an industry.

While the majority of fashion design students are female, the majority of big name fashion designers are gay men. The fashion industry is one in which success is determined by customer perception. So long as customers believe that gay men are better designers they will have a far greater chance of success than do women and straight men.

Sociology/fashion design project – a plea for assistance

Apparel design students at UW-Stout are required to take one sociology class. I find the class interesting, although I am not sure if as a designer I will ever use what I learn in the class. My final project is to use the concepts from the semester to construct a sociological argument about a problem at UW-Stout. In order to make this class more relevant to my major, I decided to find a topic that relates to apparel design. I have noticed that as a man I am part of a very small minority in my program, so my paper will be about gender disparities in the apparel/fashion field.

The paper is due on April 29, but we were given the assignment last week so that we will have ample time to collect data. I found graduation numbers for 1988 through 2009 (data were not available for 1989, 1991, 1992, and 1999). In that time UW-Stout awarded 351 bachelor’s degrees to apparel design students. Only 13 of those degree recipients were men.

Are these data typical of fashion design programs at other schools? I would like to hear from students at other schools about the make-up of their design programs. What percentage of the students are men? I am interested in both quantitative and qualitative data. Men, how do you feel about being a student in a predominantly female field? Do you experience any problems because of your gender? What are they, and how do you overcome them? Women, what do you think about men in fashion design?

Any input about this matter will be greatly appreciated. Please post your comments to this blog or email me at coled@my.uwstout.edu. Thank you.

The identity of all respondents will remain confidential.