This article highlights how a gender perspective can be performed by design as critical practice. Two common household appliances - a drill and a hand blender - were used as a starting point. Inspired by Derrida's term deconstruction, the product language of the tools was analysed and then switched in two new prototypes: the hand blender Mega Hurricane Mixer and the drill Dolphia. The prototypes were shown at exhibitions and lectures. The comments by the audience show that a switching of product language entails that their relationship to the artifact itself also changes. Overall, the elements, which previously had been perceived as 'lacking transparency', were now visible. For example, the drill was identified as a "drill for women" and considered inadequate for drilling, and the mixer revealed needs and functions that the traditional mixer did not satisfy. This implies that design should not only be seen as 'final products' but as a part of a social process that takes place between the user, the artifact and the norms of society. By switching the product languages it was possible to highlight how gender values are connected to each design and each artifact. This means that the design of the artifacts around us is not fixed, but can be renegotiated and situated in time, place, and context.

This paper explores the border between technology and design (form giving) from a feminist perspective. Looking at the energy system and how it has been integrated in the household, we want to address the underlying structures that have been built into the ecology of electrical appliances used in daily life, preserving certain norms that could be questioned from both a gender and a sustainability perspective. We have created an alternative electricity meter, the Energy AWARE Clock, addressing design issues uncovered in an initial field study. In this paper, we will make parallels to these issues. We also use feminist technoscience studies scholar Donna Haraway’s theory of the cyborg in order to clarify useful concepts that can be derived from feminist theory and that can act as important tools for designers engaged in creative processes. From our own experience with the Energy AWARE Clock this approach has great potential for questioning and rethinking present norms within sustainability and gender, from the viewpoints of design research and design practice.

This paper highlights the important role that design plays when it comes to women’s overall experi- ences of ther gynaecological examination. It exempli es how the examination can become renegotiable through the practice of a critical design. We will re ect this in the design of the contemporary gynaecological examination chair (GEC). We used women’s experiences as a starting point for the design of an Androchair (a conceptual male equivalent of the GEC), in order to make the experiences critically visible. Inspired by the view of the gynaecolog- ical examination as a performance where the Androchair is represented as a prop and was placed on a stage as a discussion object during a public seminar. The Androchair allowed for both critical and multiple readings of the GEC and through that, the gynaecology examination at large. Moreover, it stimulated a discussion about alternative ideas towards achieving a more positive experience. 

Research points to the need for developing methods to change established gender orders and converting gender perspectives into practical action. Based on a gender equality project at the Centre for Health Technology Halland (HCH), this article discusses the potential of critical design as an agent within the framework of gender equality work and work for change. The project worked with critical design as a tool for making visible what a gender perspec- tive can mean in the context of one’s work, in this case health technology. It resulted in a conceptual prototype called the Androchair – a medical chair designed for men but based on women’s experiences of the gynaecological chair. The aim of the article is to study and discuss the significance of including a prototype, that is an object, in the gender equality work of an organisation. Special focus is placed on whether, and in that case how, a prototype can influence notions of gender and gender equality in relation to one’s own area of work. The empirical data consists of qualitative interviews with staff at the HCH. Actor-net- work theory is used to interpret the data. The analysis shows how the Androchair raises questions of power, needs and interpretative prerogative in relation to what one does in one’s work. Furthermore, it does this to a greater extent than more conventional ways of conveying knowledge about gender equality (such as academic texts, statistics and PowerPoint presentations). Physical objects are perceived of as making gender and gender equality issues more tangible.