Diverse Perspectives. A Review of Women Architects: Mode(s) of (R)existing. Reflections Based on a Cycle of Talks

Patricia Orfila Barros dos Reis

doi:10.3390/arts9010030

Abstract

The book Women Architects: Mode(s) of (R)existing. Reflections Based on a Cycle of Talks (2018, edited by Patrícia Santos Pedrosa, Joana Pestana Lages, and Lia Gil Antunes, Lisbon, Women in Architecture Association, 100p), published as a bilingual collection (Portuguese and English), is structured around thirteen narratives by women architects, from a cycle of talks which took place from September 2017 to March 2018 in Lisbon. The book presents a concise record of the event’s purpose, which was to initiate a debate that takes into account both the gender perspective and women architects’ invisibility, as well as their multiple implications in the creation of Portuguese architecture, cities and territories within a traditionally male profession.

Highlights

The multiple voices that shaped this collection were those of the architects Célia Gomes, Cláudia Costa Santos, Felipa Roseta, Inês Moreira, Luz Valente-Pereira, Patrícia Santos Pedrosa, Paula Melâneo, Rita Ochôa, Rosa T
Felipa Roseta provokes us by highlighting the inexpressive presence of women in public spaces and asking: Where are they?
Through a diversity of perspectives, the book emerges as an important pillar in the construction of knowledge, in the difficult task that is the production of feminist epistemologies

Summary

Introduction

The multiple voices that shaped this collection were those of the architects Célia Gomes, Cláudia Costa Santos, Felipa Roseta, Inês Moreira, Luz Valente-Pereira, Patrícia Santos Pedrosa, Paula Melâneo, Rita Ochôa, Rosa T. Sheng and Annelise Pitts, Lia Gil Antunes, Luísa Paiva, Patrícia Robalo Ribeiro and Sofia Castelo, who, besides a compilation of texts, offered quantitative and qualitative information about what it means to be a woman architect in Portugal in the twenty-first century, focusing on subjects such as female invisibility, gender stereotypes, sexism, barriers to employment, the balance between family life and career progression, sexual harassment, and numerous forms of silencing and constraining within the profession.

Results

Conclusion