Annmarie Adams and Peta Tancred Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2000; 190 pp. Reviewed by Emily Andreae Graduate, Faculty of Architecture, Landscape & Design, 1999 University of Toronto and Janice Andreae English York University Toronto, Ontario [A woman's] intellect is not for invention or creation, but for sweet ordering, arrangement, and decision. -- John Ruskin (Sesame and Lilies) One would not expect Ruskin's perspective position and capacity of woman in 1860s to so closely represent currently held attitudes towards a group of professional women. The persistence of this ideology at different levels continues to influence careers of many women associated with Canadian architectural profession as noted by Annmarie Adams and Peta Tancred in 'Designing Women': Gender and Architectural Profession. Through historical and sociological research and analysis, Adams and Tancred piece together a retrospective view of how many Canadian women entering, existing in, and exiting architectural profession -- past and present -- have faced their peers' reluctance to accept their qualifications and recognize their accomplishments. Far too little has been written to challenge Ruskin's views a woman's capacity to design public spaces. Surprisingly, 'Designing Women' is first book of its kind to address history and working conditions of women in Canadian architecture. Written by an architectural historian (Adams) and a sociologist (Tancred), study is divided into sections that examine social and political dynamics of gender relations in architectural profession. The authors employ a qualitative methodology that includes case studies developed from interviews, and quantitative analyses of statistical and archival materials. This approach is applied to each area of investigation as a way of identifying limitations and barriers architectural profession in Canada, particularly in Ontario, maintains to keep women out or at least, as a recent [1991] national survey indicates, on margins of a male institution of the old school sort. Because 81 percent of profession is male (p. 7), possibility of not actually being able to participate in profession despite their qualifications is a dominant issue for young women studying architecture. Compare this with their peers in other professions, who are mainly concerned with minimizing possibility of reaching a glass ceiling. In fact, this text looks beyond its own borders to lives and work of women in medicine, engineering, and law, to develop a framework that parallels existing investigations of women's professional work in these fields. To date, such considerations of women's work limited their research to architectural profession. Usually women's contributions and their status were established by and positioned in relation to their male counterparts' and framed by an organizational structure similarly imposed through their longtime dominance of profession. For example, previous comparisons have been made between men and women who have achieved and/or maintained registration, a necessary status required by profession in order to practise legally as an architect, yet many men, and more women, have opted out of this process over course of their working lives. Such analyses of participation are often compared provincially and nationally throughout North America and/or abroad. Rarely, as these writers note, do these examinations tackle questions of cultural, social, and political relations invested in practices of architectural profession. Where, they imply, do issues of gender, race, class, sexual orientation, ability, and age enter into discussions of daily working conditions and professional advancement? As suggested by title, text has dual intentions: to literally reflect careers and lives of female designers, and to question how diversity of constraints placed upon their careers has designed position of women in architectural profession in Canada. …
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Sep 1, 2002
Rhodri Windsor Liscombe 
Open Access
