This project is a critique of how gender roles are distributed across different industries. We live in a society where Women are now able to work in Male-dominated industries and it is viewed as a progressive and positive moment toward gender equality. However, there is very little desire for men to work in female-dominated industries. Feminine jobs are still viewed as ‘weak’ and ‘unskilled’ compared to ‘masculine’ work. Branding a job as a female immediately diminishes its value and authority and reduces men's desire to work in the industry, whereas when a job is called masculine it is viewed as aspirational for both males and females to work in1. This project will intend to question why certain industries are associated with a particular gender and why society is reluctant to consider female-dominated industries on the same platform as males. The project seeks to highlight the discrepancies between certain occupations, question why these industries are gendered in the first place, and critically examine why female work is viewed as less than male work.

To critique the narrative of feminine work being lesser than male work I will use a collection of images of the spaces in certain industries which have strongly gendered connotations, such as doctors, footballers, bankers, etc. To then critique this, I will embroider over the people in the images leaving behind just the context. In doing this, people are prompted to question why these environments are gendered in the first place and to consider the idea that there is no need to view one industry above another purely based on the societal view that the job is better suited to one gender.

Embroidery is a skill assigned generally to women. The view that women sew is inscribed in to our social institutions. A Government study ‘social trends’ found that sewing was the skill with the greatest difference between men and women, finding less than 2% of men can sew compared to 40% of women2. As a result, i intend to subvert this medium and present it in a neutral light to question the gender bias behind the medium.

The images used will be found and archival images of these environments so that the project is a re-representation of these spaces as ungendered and unbiased compared to the original image. Through representing archive images and embroidering the people in the images, this project aims to criticise the belief that female jobs are lesser than male jobs and questions why certain industries are gendered in the first place.

The project is intended to critique the general view that female-dominated industries are lesser than male and will seek to question why these environments are associated with a particular gender. It is aiming to encourage people to reconsider why certain environments are associated with a certain gender, particularly when it leads to negative stigmatisation of an industry. The project will encourage people to reconsider their preconceived notions of gendered spaces within industries and encourage people to view these environments neutrally.