As I ticked through the major design or design-related (web development, advertising, marketing) agencies in town, I had to admit that there alot of predominantly male companies out there. And some of the firms tend to be overwhelmingly so - 10 to 20 employees with 90% of them being male.

But then, there are a few (that I know of) that have a good balance of women to men too... This got me thinking about the profession as a whole, on a national scale, what is the ratio of men to women designers? Surely the AIGA must have some idea... Does anyone know?

My perception has always been that there are a few more women in the profession than men - like 55% - 60%. But this is purely anectdotal - based on my perceptions of AIGA conference attendance, which is in no way necessarily indicative of national averages.

So I began to wonder about Chattanooga. Is there something about our city that is more appealing to young men? We are in the south after all, is the "good ol' boy" network still alive and kicking? If I had to make a blanket statement, my impression of most Chattanooga professions is that they are male dominated. Is this just part of our culture?

As the owner a small design studio and employer of several people (2 full-timers, 3-4 freelancers) I do have to admit that all of my coworkers are men. But I am rather uncertain that this is intentional or even part of my "corporate" philosophy. It seems to be more a product of our human tendency to gravitate toward those like us...

All of these questions and the new AIGA Diversity Initiative lead me to the following question: what about non-caucasian designers in Chattanooga?

Our city is not exactly a big melting pot of ethnic diversity anyway, but the number of African-American, Asian-American, Hispaño-Latino designers that I have met can easily be counted on a couple fingers. What does this mean? And more importantly, what is my responsibility in regard to this issue?

I'd love to hear Chattanooga's thoughts on this.