Using design thinking to create a generative, bipartisan ecosystem of grassroots women's organizations in the US to increase women's equity, political empowerment, and self-determination
The Women and Democracy Project, led by MIT D-Lab Associate Director for Practice Libby McDonald and MIT Professor of Philosophy Sally Haslanger, uses design thinking to identify the most pressing challenges faced by women in the United States and to co-create a generative, bipartisan network of grassroots women’s organizations and coalitions to help women fully experience equity, political empowerment, and self-determination.
To this end, the Women and Democracy Project works directly with existing coalitions and organizations concerned with women’s issues, including political empowerment. Through a series of one- to three-day participatory design workshops, which will be piloted in the fall of 2025 in Pennsylvania, the project aims to understand current challenges and opportunities for community-based women’s organizations and the best strategies for overcoming barriers to political participation. Additionally, the project leverages participatory design strategies and digital platforms to meet the complex and intersecting needs of the moment.
If we are successful, such networks will be able to leverage a broad, bipartisan constituency of women in civic processes and public life, changing the reality for US women. This effort will require continual research to understand what counts as women’s interests and how women see themselves as agents of civic engagement and mobilization.
A collaboration between MIT D-Lab and the MIT Philosophy Department, the Women and Democracy Project combines theory and practice, drawing upon the unique perspectives provided by these two programs.
Co-Design for social change
Co-design is an approach aimed at igniting transformative social change, scaffolded by research and practice that includes diverse stakeholders in solving problems that directly affect them.
By creating space for participants to use their lived experiences to work collaboratively and solve complex challenges, co-design disrupts traditional notions of knowledge, power, and expertise and encourages relationship-building across differences. The co-design approach of this project draws from methodologies developed in prior D-Lab collaborations, particularly Creative Capacity Building and Co-Design Summits.
Creative Capacity Building (CCB) is a workshop methodology that teaches participants the design process to enable innovation, providing a pathway for community members to solve the challenges they face. Underpinning CCB is the belief that anyone can be an active creator.
Co-Design Summits (CDS) are multi-day, hands-on, co-creation workshops that bring together diverse actors to understand complex challenges and co-create prototypes. Co-Design Summits focus on building relationships between sector actors and co-creating technical, service-based, or systems-level solutions to development challenges in a particular region.
Contact
Sally Haslanger, Women and Democracy Project Co-Lead
Libby McDonald, Women and Democracy Project Co-Lead
