Insights from Women Across Generations
Sonja Harjunpää
Women and femininity are in the centre of our design, and as a part of our ongoing exploration, we conducted conversations with women of different ages, life experiences, and cultural perspectives. Our goal was to understand how femininity is perceived, experienced, and expressed, and how clothing relates to that experience.
What follows is a documentation of their reflections.
Femininity as a Lived Process
“As a fact, I am a woman. I was born a woman.” Anastasia, 23.
Femininity emerged as a nuanced and evolving concept. For Anastasia, it developed over time: “It took me some time to become more feminine due to life hurdles… now I’m more in tune with my feminine self.” She describes femininity as slower and more deliberate: “It shows in the way I carry myself in public. I don’t rush. That’s more of a masculine trait — goal-oriented. Femininity is taking time.”
Marite, 29, describes being a woman as “a force and a creation, not only in the biological part. Femininity as a force isn’t strong — it’s balanced, graceful, empathetic.”
Tatjana, 48, emphasizes life experience and motherhood: “I have my husband and four children… I enjoy being a mother.”
Confidence amplifies femininity
Several women noted that womanhood includes both internal traits and outward expression. Confidence, empathy, creativity, and care for others were frequently mentioned as integral components of their identity as women.
Marite frames femininity as contextual: emotional experiences such as anger, sadness, or happiness, and acts of care or creativity, heighten her sense of being feminine.
Susanna, 27, describes femininity as peaceful confidence and notes the challenges of accepting a changing body: “Feeling insecure has made me feel sometimes bad about wearing clothes, and with that, it affects my femininity.”
Tatjana links femininity to beauty and self-expression: “My understanding of beauty is close to my heart… if you feel happy, active, and understood, it makes you feel feminine.”
Clothing as Expression and Support
Clothing emerged as both a practical and symbolic aspect of femininity. For Tatjana, comfort is central: “For me, being comfortable is most important with clothing.” Marite articulates a shift in perspective: “Now clothing can be comforting, safe… you can also show your values through it.”
Women also acknowledge the influence of social observation. Marite states, “Women both cover and reveal for men… I’m aware that I dress differently for men and women.” Julia, 45, emphasizes the communicative power of clothing: “Clothing affects how others see us. You’ll always get a response.”
Participants consistently highlighted that clothing can support femininity by providing comfort, safety, and the ability to express values and personality, rather than performing for others.
Confidence is a recurrent theme. Julia explains, “I feel most confident when I feel like myself… dresses feel feminine, but diversity is important. Femininity shows through confidence and self-acceptance.” Susanna connects confidence with body awareness and comfort: insecurity can suppress both self-expression and the feeling of being feminine. Anastasia similarly links self-perception and confidence: “The way how we look affects us every day. If we don’t like how we look, it affects everything.”
Tradition, Society, and Personal Choice
Women expressed varying degrees of attachment to tradition, often balanced with modern perspectives. Tatjana’s reflections emphasize family and continuity: “I got my first daughter rather young… I’m proud of them and enjoy being a mother.”
Marite acknowledges her traditional values while recognizing personal choice: “My values are traditional with a modern twist… but your truth isn’t everyone’s truth. Be proud of your decisions.”
Anastasia adds a note on social expectations: “People are always going to have opinions on others. Do whatever makes you feel comfortable.”
All of the women’s opinions combined, there lies a common thread: femininity can coexist with independence, personal ambition, and self-defined success.
A Multifaceted Understanding of Femininity
Taken together, these conversations point to a shared understanding of femininity as layered and deeply personal. It encompasses confidence, emotion, tradition, creativity, care, and comfort — often all at once.
Women expressed a desire for clothing that can be trusted and returned to, that adapts to the rhythms of daily life rather than dictating them. Clothing that respects the body and supports self-expression without sexualizing or restricting it aligns most closely with how femininity is actually lived.
Femininity, as these women describe it, is not an ideal to be achieved but an experience shaped over time. Listening to their voices offers insight not only into womanhood today, but into how design, culture, and self-perception can better support it.
Sonja Harjunpää