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Where are the non-Adobe women at Engage?


It looks like our very own Anne Zelenka is the only one at this event. I can think of lots of women that could add a lot to this discussion (and yes I realise how condescending that sounds). We have heard reference today to “granny mode” and to the “online shopper who is a woman with a $100k budget”. But those are placeholders rather than people. Anne twittered the question- its a good one. If Adobe wants to create a rich ecosystem for its new platform it really needs to address a richer diversity of prospects. Oh dear- the latest demo is… Victoria’s Secret. So there are now some more women in the room- on screen, scantily clad. Quod Est Demonstrandum. That said I am sure plenty of Victoria’s Secret customers are women. But we really need to fight against the architecture of the space. Adobe, with its design heritage, already has an awful lot of women customers. So bring them in to Engage, people.

2 Comments

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By James Governor
— February 27, 2007 at 10:26 pm
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2 Responses

  1. well… this was invite only, yes?
    seems like a question to ask Adobe.
    Were women not invited or did they choose not to attend?

    leisa.reichelt — February 28, 2007 @ 9:46 am —



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Continuing the Discussion

  1. [...] There were slights throughout the day: a mention of “granny mode” for a beginner’s mode of some Adobe software, a comment from some developer along the lines of “our users aren’t technically astute, they’re mature mothers,” and an example of a cell phone graphic for girls that was pink with cutesy animals. Stereotypes of females attended in greater numbers than actual females, if you don’t include the Adobe women who were there. No wonder these stereotypes prevail. If you work in an environment with actual women you might learn that some are technically oriented and some less so, some like pink and some do not, some are airbrushed and perfect like a Victoria’s Secret model… but most are not. I am not airbrushed and perfect, as anyone who has met me online or in person knows. But I am real in a way that those Victoria’s Secret models and clueless grannies and imagined versions of mature mothers are not. [...]

    Anne 2.0 » Blog Archive » Working with the Architecture of the Space — February 28, 2007 @ 11:36 pm
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