Where Are the Women Architects?

129 Pages·2016·1.66 MB·English

by  Stratigakos, Despina

Where Are the Women Architects?

Where Are the Women Architects?
Despina Stratigakos
Published by Princeton University Press
Princeton and Oxford
in association with Places Journal
Copyright © 2016 by Princeton University Press
Published by Princeton University Press, Princeton and Oxford
in association with Places Journal
Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540
In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 6 Oxford Street,
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All Rights Reserved
Cover illustration: Graphic used to advertise the Missing 32% Symposium
organized by the American Institute of Architects, San Francisco Chapter
(AIASF), and held on October 13, 2012
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Stratigakos, Despina, author.
Where are the women architects? / Despina Stratigakos.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978- 0- 691- 17013- 8 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Women architects. I. Title.
NA1997.S77 2016
720.82— dc23
2015027345
British Library Cataloging- in- Publication Data is available
Designed and composed by Yve Ludwig in Akkurat and Mercury
Printed on acid- free paper
Printed in China
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To my grandmothers
One sold her dowry to study and become a teacher;
the other, forbidden any education as a girl, sat on the
school steps and wept

Acknowledgments ix
Introduction
Where Are the Women Architects? 1
1. May Women Practice Architecture?
The First Century of Debate 5
2. The Sad State of Gender Equity
in the Architectural Profession 21
3. What I Learned from Architect Barbie 38
4. Architecture Prizes and the Boys’ Club 50
5. Unforgetting Women Architects:
A Confrontation with History and Wikipedia 65
Conclusion
Looking Back, Moving Forward 77
Notes 83
Bibliography 97
Index 110
Photo Credits 115

Acknowledgments
This book has been inspired by conversations and collaborations
over the years with women who believed that architecture must
change and decided to do something about it. The late Milka
Bliznakov, who founded the International Archive of Women in
Architecture at Virginia Tech, and on whose advisory committee
I once served, demonstrated the passion and care involved in
preserving the historical record. Beverly Willis, founder of the
Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation (BWAF) in New York
City, has been a model for bringing a broad variety of people to
the table through participatory public education and synergistic
partnerships with academia and industry; I am honored to serve
on the BWAF board of trustees. At the Royal Institute of Technol-
ogy in Stockholm, Meike Schalk and Katja Grillner, co- founders
of the feminist architecture and research collective FATALE,
have included me in their conversations about pedagogy and
social outreach, providing insights from an international per-
spective. I have also benefited from the generosity of researchers
in other countries who have undertaken major studies of gender
equity in architecture and shared their experiences with me,
including Annmarie Adams at McGill University and Karen
Burns and Justine Clark at the University of Melbourne. Closer
to home, I have talked shop and strategized with Lori Brown
of Syracuse University, who co-f ounded ArchiteXX to create
mentoring networks and programs to help young women stay in
architectural practice. At the University at Buffalo, Kelly Hayes
McAlonie, my collaborator on Architect Barbie, spurs us both on
in the search for novel ways to raise women architects’ visibility.
These women, and many others not mentioned here, have been