How Many Women Are in the Room? is a symbolic question and an invitation to remain vigilant about female representation—both in design and beyond.

This volume documents the fifth edition of AWDA, Aiap Women in Design Award, the prestigious international biennial prize dedicated to women designers in visual communication. The title echoes the very question asked during the award ceremony, highlighting the need to carefully observe the roles, spaces, and languages that continue to be assigned or denied today.

How Many Women Are in the Room? gathers the selected and awarded projects, offering a broad and nuanced overview of innovative languages and approaches developed by students, professionals, and researchers. Visual projects by designers from around the world are accompanied by essays, focused studies, and interviews that explore themes linked to design and feminism: labor, rights, inequality, languages, and activism.

The volume is completed by essays from international activists, designers, scholars, and researchers who reflect—through visual design—on issues related to women’s labor, gender equity, and cultural and social disparities. It also features interviews with key figures from fields such as civil rights, communication, art, journalism, politics, and institutions.

The book is a co-edition project with AIAP, the Italian association for visual communication design, active since 1945 in promoting design culture and graphic professionalism.