THE CONTRIBUTION OF COMMUNICATION DESIGN TO ENCOURAGE GENDER EQUALITY

Gender divide is currently at the heart of the international debate, “Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls” is the fifth goal of the ONU Agenda for Sustainable Development. From a communication design perspective, the issue concerns women’s representation in the media and the repercussions it has in reinforcing stereotypes. Mediascape in Italy still plays a crucial part in conveying stereotyped models that influence self perception and the resulting personal and collective identity. In this context we as communication designers have to intervene to develop new tools to change the ways of seeing, consuming and distributing images. This paper is focused on the ongoing research and experimentation activities conducted by the research group “dcxcg”, placed at the intersection of Communication Design and Gender Studies. Its main goal is to offer a critical view of the forms of representation of gender and to support new communication models in the educational context. Starting from the schematisation of the short circuit created when media make use of stereotyped models, amplifying and affirming the stereotypes themselves, the aim is to show where and how communication design can intervene on this vicious circle. This could be a contribution in generating positive actions and a step towards gender equality and empowerment in a wider perspective.