Women's Participation Since 1964
Rebecca Tegtmeyer
Tags
Geographic location
United States
Year
2020
Description
This poster displays the percentages of women reported voting in the presidential elections compared to the men reported voting from the years 1964 to present. This data is aligned with the percentages of women on Congress compared to men of that election year. The year 1980 was monumental in that the percentage of women leveled with the men voting, and the women have been leading every year since.
The number of women holding seats in congress continues to grow, perhaps we will see a year soon in which women outnumber the men in congress. This work documents this necessary progression of women's participation in politics here in the US, moving towards equity in voice. The data visual makes this progression visible, a feminist design act.
Acknowledgements
Get Out the Vote: Empowering the Women's Vote identity by Kelly Salchow MacArthur and Nancy Skolos
Biography
Rebecca Tegtmeyer is a graphic design educator and practitioner. Through her active research, writing, making, and teaching agendas she investigates the role of a designer and the creative process through a variety of forms. Working both individually and collaboratively, she approaches design as a catalyst in facilitating systems that challenge and inspire—further extending the capabilities and responsibilities of a designer in today’s complex world.
Current collaborative research projects focus on prioritizing the student experience and strengthening the values of design education. She is also examining sewing as a design practice that challenges the technical tools, consumerism, and patriarchal systems in design production. This practice results in data visualizations that bring awareness to the inequities of motherhood and reproductive rights. Her essay about this practice, “On Designing with Authenticity Over Perfection,” is in the publication, Feminist Designer, published by MITPress in 2023.
Additionally, Rebecca is co-author and co-editor of Collaboration in Design Education, published by Bloomsbury Academic in 2020. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Art, Art History and Design at Michigan State University and a former member of the AIGA Design Educators Community (DEC) Steering Committee.