Women in architecture: the Spanish case

Abstract

This article describes women's situation in architecture and town planning, with special reference to the case of Spain. To this end, drawing on available data, a rather discouraging quantitative description of Spanish women architects is presented. In particular, available data allows us to provide a detailed description of the position of women in the academic world. The principal causes behind the low degree of professional integration of women architects are also analysed, providing explanations whose significance goes beyond the Spanish case, showing their relevance to the international context. The ‘glass ceiling’ that limits women's professional careers bears little relationship to their qualifications or professional worth, as both data and qualitative analyses demonstrate. Rather, it is the result of structural factors which can be explained through various theories, among them those of symbolic domination, cultural capital and social capital developed by Bourdieu. Because the low representation of women in the profession, particularly in its higher rungs, is the result of structural practices within the field of architecture and planning, policy measures directed to increase their presence cannot just be based on promoting individual effort (more individual women studying more and working harder). Strategies must be political if they are to remove the structural barriers to a truly meritocratic profession.