In our recent newsletter, we introduced you to Elizabeth Kohen, Assistant Curator at the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) In New York. We shared how the exhibition Elizabeth co-curated, Designing Motherhood: Things That Make and Break Our Births, explores 150 years of reproductive health through the lens of design. 

From medical instruments to everyday products, the show highlights how design shapes our experiences of fertility, pregnancy, postpartum life, and menstruation – while also asking important questions about access, equity, and who design truly serves. 

We’re honored that GladRags is included in this powerful exhibition. Below, Elizabeth shares more about the objects that move her, her perspective on consumer culture, and the path that led her interests to design history.           

The Interview

Q: Do you have a favorite object, artwork, or person included in the Designing Motherhood Exhibition? 

That's a tough call!  Every single one of the 200+ objects in the exhibition has so many stories embedded within it, and it's been such a privilege to be part of the effort to research and bring these stories into the light. 

The team behind the Designing Motherhood book that was published in conjunction with the first staging of the exhibition in Philadelphia back in 2021 has done such incredible work to highlight hidden or taboo histories relating to reproductive health and well-being—they were the ones who researched and sourced the 1959 "tassette", the menstrual cup that's shown on display next to the Gladrags.

I love how that example comes with all of its original accessories: not only the pink rubber cup, but also its accompanying carry bag made with sparkly silver thread, and a pink instruction guide that shows an elegant gloved hand daintily holding the little evening bag (though not the cup itself). It's an image of hyper feminization in the traditional sense, but at the end of the day, the product is a device you use by reaching into your own body and pulling it out, full of blood. 

I love the duality of this object, how its functionality speaks plainly to the visceral experience of tending to one's menstruation while its marketing materials demonstrate how throughout history the reality of this common act has been deliberately obfuscated and suppressed, whether that's through euphemisms, or making menstruating people physically conceal themselves, or through plainly ridiculous promotional images.

It's part of the reason it felt so important to me to include GladRags in the case as well, as a great counterexample to this historic tendency to pretend periods away!

It's hard to limit myself to just one object, but given how much we've been battered with snow in New York this winter, lately I've also really loved showing people the prototype drawing for an all-weather stroller that could be used with wheels on dry sidewalks, but also has fins that can snap down over them on snowy, slushy days to turn the stroller into a sled and protect the wheels.  

The drawing was loaned to us by the Cooper Hewitt, the Smithsonian National Design Museum, and comes from the office of Donald Deskey Associates—a hugely important American industrial design firm. The stroller was never made, but it's a great idea, and the sketch is also a great way to highlight how iconic designers have always been interested in creating products relating to childcare and reproductive health; those designs are just not necessarily the ones that get canonized in the history books or in exhibitions on "important" design innovations.

Q: What made you so curious about consumer culture and how has what you learned changed the way you participate as a consumer? 

I think it's hard not to be interested in consumer culture in the world we live in, where we are all bombarded with advertising—and increasingly, algorithmically targeted advertising—more than ever before. 

Growing up in the Northwest (I'm from outside Seattle), I was raised on the values of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, with particular emphasis on the first two. I definitely try to keep to that in my own life, but it's also so important to me to balance those values with an openness to the real possibilities of design to shape our world into a safer, healthier, more equitable place. 

This project looks at the ways that innovations in design have made positive impacts on people's lives, whether that's through improving health outcomes or well-being more generally, but also brings a critical lens to what or who a new design is prioritizing, and at what expense—whether that's social or economic, in the privileging of some bodies and experiences at the expense of others, or environmental, in the creation of excess and unnecessary waste. 

Q: Describe your journey in the art and design world a little more, was there a moment or a person that influenced you most to go down this path? 

What a good question! I have had so many incredible teachers and mentors throughout my life.  As far as my background, I've always been interested in the intersections of everyday life and culture, but I wasn't sure how to turn that into a job, so I started working in art galleries after college. 

On a chance visit to the V&A in London in 2017, I encountered an exhibition called "Plywood: Material of the Modern World," which struck me like—well, like a piece of plywood dropped on my head, ha. I was so inspired that I applied for a graduate program in Design History, a field that looks critically at the interactions between objects, people, and culture, and I'm still working towards my PhD in the field while I work at MAD.  

All that said—in the context of this particular exhibition, I would be remiss if I didn't say the person who influenced me the most was my own mom, who (along with Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) instilled in me the values of compassion, community, and care that I hope this exhibition embodies.

Installation Photo credit: Jenna Bascom/nyceventphotography courtesy of Museum of Arts and Design

Thank you, Elizabeth, for sharing your perspective — and for helping bring these important stories into the light.

If you’re able to visit Designing Motherhood at the Museum of Arts and Design, the exhibition runs through March 15, 2026. And wherever you are, we hope this conversation encourages you to look at the objects around you — especially those connected to your body — with curiosity, care, and a critical eye.