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Recent articles concerning the status of women in Utah are circling the media and rightly stirring commotion with women’s groups. IDEAL-UT (Interior Design Education and Legislation) applauds the Utah Women and Leadership Project as well as the Women in the Economy Commission for putting a spotlight on the meager rankings of women in Utah. IDEAL-UT currently has legislation in the House Business and Labor Committee that specifically seeks to remove burdensome regulations that are preventing highly educated, talented women, who own small businesses, from bidding on state and federal interior design contracts. With reports like Wall Street 24/7’s Ten Worst States for Women (Frohlich, Hess & Kent, 2014) and others ranking Utah women dead last in the country, it is not surprising that HB126 is being held in committee for unexplainable reasons.
Interior design professionals, who are primarily female, are seeking through legislation a restoration of autonomy, the ability to compete in the free market for design projects, permitting authority, and protections from encroachment through state recognition of scope, and clear differentiation from other disciplines. Interior designers are pleading for protections from unintended consequences which resulted from an overly broad and under inclusive Architectural Practice Act (Utah Department of Administrative Services, 2015). Those unintended consequences prohibit ANY person who is not a licensed design professional the ability to submit plans for permitting purposes for commercial spaces above 3,000 sq. feet. An interior designer is not recognized as a design professional in Utah.
Prior to the addition of the 3,000 sq. ft. restriction, interior designers were able to bid and work autonomously. In real everyday terms, this means that women who own interior design small businesses must hire an architect to oversee their work, even though each county has trained plans examiners who ultimately oversee all work requiring a permit. Additionally, an interior designer has an education, specific years of experience, and often has passed a nationally recognized exam, for a total of roughly six years of combined qualification. And yet, with substantial education that includes applications that protect and contribute to public safety, interior designers are still prohibited from practicing to their full potential in the state of Utah.
Misconceptions abound concerning what professional interior designers do, and clearly if investigated, one will conclude it is much more than paint and pillows. This misalignment in understanding is an example of information asymmetry, and a defining reason why HB126 should move forward. Many public buildings have interiors exclusively designed by interior designers who are trained in health-safety, yet designers do not have the same recognition and autonomy of those they partner with to complete the project. These health-safety issues include applied knowledge of fire-ratings, flammable materials, Americans with Disability Act (ADA) requirements, egress and much more. Even more troublesome is that interior designers are the only unlicensed and professionally unrecognized group that comes to the table when working on a commercial project. There simply is not a monopoly in skill, intelligence, or education within the trades, and yet there is a powerful monopoly currently relegating interior designers to a less than status.
The current regulations limit interior designers significantly, and every year they are in place, causes formidable damage. These impacts include but are not limited to, a loss of revenue, retraction of business through reduction of employees, debt and difficulty in accessing capital/small business loans, reduction or downgrading of office real estate, increases in wage gap disparities, and reduction of the total number of design firms. For example, in 2008 there was a total of over 26 million dollars in design fees that individual design firms were restricted from pursuing because of protectionist regulations in place (Utah Department of Administrative Services, Division of Facilities and Construction Management, 2015). Utah has wonderful professional talent, but current laws are allowing major contracts to be awarded to a select few architectural firms. In addition, new contracts are also awarded to out of state design firms, resulting in the state pumping money elsewhere that could be benefitting Utah citizens and businesses. In fact, half of all states have measures in place allowing qualified interior designers permitting authority and autonomy within a specific scope which are similar to HB126 (American Society for Interior Designers, 2015; International Interior Design Association, 2015).
When there is evidence of unfair trade practice, when multiple state sanctioned boards limit entry, create impenetrable barriers, and flex their muscles, it is an indication of an abuse of power, of unfair trade policy, and it is a distinguishing characteristic of a monopoly. This is occurring today, as the licensed construction trades protect their own, clearly not reflective of what free market competition or the state of Utah is all about. Interior designers are not seen as professional, cannot use their knowledge to its fullest extent, and must hand over their intellectual property for projects above 3,000 sq. feet to a “licensed design professional”. The 3,000 sq. ft. rule is the arbitrary number the Architectural Practice Act has described as “too complicated” for the qualified ranks of interior design (Utah State Legislature, 2015). In one very recent meeting which I attended, a code official declared that interior designers are essentially “dumb as drywall” and “even if the state passes a law recognizing them he will not honor it, and would require an architect” (AIA Government Affairs Committee Meeting, personal communication, January 21, 2015).
How do you change the status of women in Utah? Change is matriculated by supporting policies and solutions that remove barriers and restore the ability and opportunity for women to compete as independent practitioners. This issue does not singularly benefit interior designers and the majority of women in the profession. When small interior design business are allowed to compete on larger projects, they are more apt to expand their business, hire new employees, use their education to further protect the public, create more stability in families, pay off debts, and grow the creative sector of the Utah economy. It is reported that business growth has not changed for small women owned business in Utah since 1975 (American Express Open Forum, 2014; Thompson, A. 2014). One could say that many more firms would have grown in size and number had there been ability to compete for the larger projects. Furthermore, current Utah laws are suppressing small women owned businesses from attaining federal contracts, and this procurement issue is a highlighted area of concern in the US Senate. The report on The 21st Century Barriers to Women’s Entrepreneurship provides insight by summarizing that "Women entrepreneurs still face challenges getting equal access to federal contracts. The U.S. Government has never met its goal of awarding 5 percent of federal contracts to women- owned business. If they did, women-owned businesses would have access to marketplace opportunities worth at least $4 billion each year” (Cantwell, 2014, p. 1). The report also proposes changing federal law giving women owned businesses the opportunity to win sole source federal contracts. Even if the federal law changes, Utah interior designers would continue to be barred from these opportunities as independent design firms.
Intentionally restricting women in business is also a social and economic loss for consumers and business as a whole. Research from the Pew Research Center shows that everyone does better when women share the reins of power (Pew Research Center, 2015). In a recent story from The Economist concerning women in business, Grant & Sandberg proclaim that, “Start-ups led by women are more likely to succeed; innovative firms with more women in top management are more profitable; and companies with more gender diversity have more revenue, customers, market share and profits” (The Economist, 2015, para. 6).
Utah is strong in the tech industry, as noted by the 2015 Economic Report for Governor Herbert (Utah Economic Council, 2015). Sustaining those rankings and growing business for Utah’s creative industries is equally important. Utah State University and Weber State University have accredited programs for interior designers, and there are several other high quality programs in Utah. These students deserve the opportunity to reach their professional potential, and attain a future that is just as bright as their fellow male counterparts.
