Remodeling | Design-Build, Design, Interior Design, Interior Designer, Architecture, Business: Running a full-service design/build firm is hard enough. Running it as a woman can be even trickier, as Jaque Bethke of Pure Design Environments knows all too well. In a field dominated by men, Bethke has been able to stand out from the crowd. In just a few short years, Bethke has built a successful full-service architecture and interior design company that hasn’t always been easy to run.
4 comments:
Jaque Bethke's story is yet another article which is both inspiring and disappointing as the designer in question is making innovative, important work, but is one of few women in the design/build field. Bethke is a true entrepreneur who learned about absences in the housing industry through her work in hospitality. She saw a problem and began a company with locations in three cities to correct it. She was able to identify the industry's problems through her experiences as a woman. She saw that the consumers were no longer a couple with kids and a dog who need a lawn and a picket fence, but were rather single women or childless couples, among other familial structures, who needed a different type of living space. Her insight was certainly needed and her business has done well despite, in her words, needing to be "twice as smart" as the men to secure the same projects. Bethke also encourages other women to joining the field, correcting the irregularity.
This article was extremely encouraging, not only as a woman, but as a person who does not fit the standard cookie cutter life. Bethke's bravery and entrepreneurship exemplifies just how needed she was in the industry. Businesses do not thrive unless they meet a certain need that others cannot meet. I think the powerful idea that homes need to be reinvented for the modern person is relevant now more than ever. With the invention of technology and more peculiar job types, people are no longer working the 9-5 with "3 kids and 2 dogs" as it was put. The idea of tailoring a home to a new, alternative to the cookie cutter life is something that is intrinsically intertwined with Bethke being a woman. As it was put, being a woman makes you more in touch with emotions. We often view that as a bad thing, but for Bethke I think that 6th sense enabled her to identify the niche need for new, "modern family" homes. I think it is very inspiring to watch women continue to break boundaries and identify what the modern woman wants.
I am all for women empowerment in male-dominated environments, but I’m not quite sure I like this woman’s attitude towards her industry. She is using statements like “ You'll love it, it's really fun!” makes me feel like she is appealing to less the confident sides of women and trying to change them, she focuses on things like her clothes and the numbers against her, and not what she actually has done in order to achieve her stature. Bethke appears to call her success a simple act of fate; she got to where she is today because she TRIED. And while she appears to be exaggerating the necessary skills to achieve, “double this, double that”, it actually can feel that way sometimes, but that is not how it has to be. I always feel like I go back and forth on this topic (yay for successful women, but boo at their attitudes towards their situation) but in reality, I am happy to see women achieving great things, because like in the theatrical melting pot article, exposure is what inspires people to achieve and seeing women in positions of power will inspire other women to achieve.
I am so supportive of the concept of this article; giving credit to a woman who has pushed through a male-dominated industry. This article, however, almost gives off a condescending air. It has a slight twinge of belittlement of this woman's accomplishments. This article talks about women joining the architecture field as if it were a summer camp that has just opened its doors to females - "You'll love it, it's really fun!"I cannot place if this was the writer's doing, or that Bethke simply did not give more content in her interview. I appreciate the article for attempting to shine a light on women's struggles in architecture, but I think it paints a false picture. This article would be very inspiring for a young girl, or minority even, aspiring to be an architect, but it would sadly not give them the full picture of the industry.
Post a Comment