Women Architects Research Articles

Latin America: A New Generation of Women Architects

Latin America: A New Generation of Women Architects

Zaha: An Image of “The Woman Architect”

Using as a departure point Bridget Fowler and Fiona M. Wilson's sociological reflections on the slow progress of women architects towards achieving equality within the profession, as published in their essay, “Women Architects and Their Discontents”, the aim of this article is to examine the image of Zaha Hadid in relation to Despina Stratigakos' arguments about what “a woman architect” looks like today. By referring to the feminist theories of Simone de Beauvoir, Stratigakos and Rochelle Martin, this article uses the image of Hadid to examine, firstly, the relationship women architects have with work and mothering; secondly, the image of the woman architect in relation to that of the male architect; and thirdly, the effects that the image of “the architect” has on gender traits and the practices of women architects.

A “New Institutional” Perspective on Women's Position in Architecture: Considering the Cases of Australia and Sweden

Surprisingly little research on the position of women in architecture has attended to how the regulatory framing and governance of the architecture profession, through institutional and professional bodies, serves to construct and constrain professional identity in gendered ways.1 This article attempts such an analysis, applying a “new institutional” approach to understanding the continuing under-representation of women in architecture. Focusing primarily on the Australian architecture profession, we draw a contrast with features of the profession in Sweden. Our focus is on the legal rational institutions that legitimise and consequently shape the profession, and we attempt to show how credentials and registration processes, along with professional associations, act as legitimising frames for professional practice.

The Woman/Architect Distinction

The complicated links between individual life stories and theories of gender are central to feminist discussion. Since the end of the 1970s, feminist discourse has debated the tensions between feminism's collective category, “woman”, and the diversity of women. Feminist theory has worked to undo the monolithic category of Woman. This paper argues that research on women in architectural practice should draw on this long-standing debate, particularly when researchers use life-story interview texts as the corner-stone for gender studies. Researchers who use gender as a category of analysis must negotiate the complexity of lived subjectivity narrated in the interview testimonial. The apparent “refusal” of women interviewees to self-identify as women architects or explain career trajectories primarily through the prism of gender invites us to produce more subtle theories of identity, lived subjectivity and mechanisms of gender identification in feminist architectural research. The term, woman architect, invites us to think about the hyphenated nature of identity.

Limited Visibility: Portraits of Women Architects

This paper considers the visibility of women architects across three New Zealand sites: the institutional architecture journal, the national architecture award system and a local website that allows for self-representation. The website, Architecture + Women , was set up in 2011 in anticipation of an exhibition of the work of New Zealand women architects planned for 2013 as an anniversary of an earlier event, “Constructive Agenda”, held in 1993. The website accumulates images of women in New Zealand who identify as architects. The paper considers the portrayal of women architects in each of the three sites, juxtaposing a sociological viewpoint with the biographical, seen as distinct yet overlapping modes of representation. Five portraits from the website are selected for detailed discussion as they reflect upon representations of femininity, colonial encounters, nature and the limits of the discipline—issues that are persistent for women architects in New Zealand.

A Cross-National Study of Accommodating and “Usurpatory” Practices by Women Architects in the UK, Spain and France

The precarious position of women in architecture is well documented, but previous work has focused on single-country analyses, which, although valuable, do not allow the transfer of ideas or aid a deeper understanding of practice. Drawing on data obtained from 66 in-depth semi-structured qualitative interviews carried out with women architects in three European countries, the UK, Spain and France, we report on the “usurpatory” strategies and instances of resigned accommodation of female architects practising in different political, social and economic systems. Our findings show stark differences in the experiences of the women in each country, with Spanish women identifying greater levels of overt discrimination, the French women enjoying greater levels of equality and the UK women adopting a broad range of “usurpatory” strategies.

Identification Through Disidentification: A Life Course Perspective on Professional Belonging

Drawing upon narratives from three women architects in Scotland across three generations, this paper explores ways that these women simultaneously identify and disidentify with thecollective identity of professional architects. Through identification, the women accommodate traditional social constructions of the male-dominated architecture profession, whilst also asserting themselves as full-fledged individual members of that profession. Understood in the context of organisational identity and through the socio-historical lens of life course perspectives, the paper uses extracts of narrative biographies to reveal how some individuals navigate their professional lives and how strategies for “accommodation” change over time. Understanding these strategies may offer insights regarding architectural education, forms of practice, and the professional culture, thereby leading to a reduction in attrition among women in architecture and an increase in occupational life satisfaction.

Women Architects and Their Discontents

The article investigates critically recent assumptions that professional women are en route to equality with professional men by assessing the field of architecture as a case study. It addresses the poorer completion rates for women architectural students, together with the lower proportions of professionally registered and promoted women architects. The article explores, in particular, Bourdieu's theories of gender divisions and higher professions as an explanatory grid for understanding these phenomena, deploying especially two late works, Masculine Domination (2001) and The State Nobility (1996). It is argued that the extended Bourdieusian theory of practice illuminates the interview data gathered from women architects, especially through its emphasis on a disposition to naturalise domination. While Bourdieu's position is not without weaknesses, this theory sheds light on the difficulties women practitioners are found to face empirically, especially in combining architecture and parenting.

Aptitude and Capacity: Published Views of the Australian Woman Architect

The paper examines the evolving portrayal of women architects, or the possibility thereof, in the popular and professional press in Australia from their earliest consideration in 1888 to a particular moment in 1970. In doing so, it reveals some of the assumptions that underscored the experience of women architects in the profession. It also reveals a number of barriers, outside of the profession, that women faced in architectural careers. In doing so, it raises questions as to the assumptions and hidden barriers to women's full engagement in the Australian architecture profession today.

“Nothing Else Will Do”: The Call for Gender Equality in Architecture in Britain

In early 2005, the British architectural weekly newspaper, Building Design, launched a campaign to increase the proportion of women in the profession of architecture in the UK from its then-current “shameful” 14 per cent. A year earlier, sociologists Bridget Fowler and Fiona M. Wilson had published “Women Architects and Their Discontents”, an article that, drawing on interviews with architects, illuminated the difficulties of achieving gender equality in architecture. In light of Fowler and Wilson's work, this paper considers the Building Design campaign and the improved working conditions it advocates to make the architectural workplace more conducive to the inclusion and retention of women. Arguing that it is overly hopeful to expect pragmatic workplace reforms to bring about full gender equality, this paper examines how some of the complex social relations underlying the practice of architecture tend to render the profession blind to the effects of gender.

Review: Early Women Architects of the San Francisco Bay Area: The Lives and Work of Fifty Professionals, 1890–1951, by Inge Schaeffer Horton

Review: <i>Early Women Architects of the San Francisco Bay Area: The Lives and Work of Fifty Professionals, 1890–1951</i>, by Inge Schaeffer Horton

Intention to use a combined contraceptive method and decision after counselling in Switzerland – Swiss data from the European CHOICE study

ABSTRACTBackground Considering the advantages of parenteral routes of administration of combined hormonal contraceptives (CHCs), their low prevalence of use in Europe is surprising. The Contraceptive health research of informed choice experience (CHOICE) study involved 11 European countries. It aimed at evaluating the influence of counselling on users’ choice between three modalities of CHC administration (the pill, the transdermal patch, and the vaginal ring). We report here the results for Switzerland.Study design Women (N = 2629) with a need for contraception received extended counselling. Questionnaires were used to collect data about the women's preferred method before and after counselling, and the reasons for their ultimate decision.Results After counselling, 40% of the women chose a contraceptive method that was different from the one initially intended. The number of vaginal ring users (28% vs. 11% intended) and patch users (7% vs. 4% intended) increased (p < 0.0001). Of the initially undecided women, 93% chose a contraceptive method after counselling. However, although information was provided on the risks, side effects and benefits associated with the different contraceptive methods, surprisingly few women retained this knowledge.Conclusion The provision of balanced information on all CHCs influenced women's decisions to a great extent. Unlike the pill, non-oral methods were significantly more often chosen.

Women With Preterm Premature Rupture of the Membranes Do Not Benefit From Weekly Progesterone

Objective We sought to determine if 17-alpha-hydroxyprogesterone (17P) extends gestation vs placebo in women with preterm premature rupture of the membranes (PPROM). Study Design Women with vertex presentations with PPROM, 20-30 weeks' gestation, were randomized to receive weekly 17P or placebo in an attempt to prolong the pregnancy. A total of 69 patients (17P, n=33; placebo, n=36) were randomized into this study. Results Initial cervical dilatation, gestational age at enrollment, and interval to delivery were not different between the 2 groups ( P = .914, .424, and .146, respectively). Time of randomization to delivery ( P = .250), mode of delivery (relative risk, 1.16; 95% confidence interval, 0.66–2.06), and the neonatal outcome statistics of morbidity ( P = .820) and mortality (relative risk, 1.28; 95% confidence interval, 0.59–2.75) were similar between the 2 groups. Conclusion In patients with PPROM, 17P did not extend gestation vs placebo and cannot be recommended for treatment in such women.

Taking Gender Into Account: Theory and Design for Women's Leadership Development Programs

We conceptualize leadership development as identity work and show how subtle forms of gender bias in the culture and in organizations interfere with the identity work of women leaders. Based on thi...

Review: Glass Ceilings: Highlights from the International Archive of Women Architects

Glass Ceilings: Highlights from the International Archive of Women Architects . Virginia Center for Architecture, Richmond. 4 March–6 June 2010 Housed in a sprawling Tudor Revival mansion designed in 1916 by John Russell Pope for financier John Kerr Branch, the Virginia Center for Architecture in Richmond stands among the contentious memorials to Virginia-born Confederate heroes and Richmond native Arthur Ashe that dominate Monument Avenue. Set within this insistently masculine topography, the recent exhibition Glass Ceilings: Highlights from the International Archive of Women Architects recast this particularly potent site to challenge historical narratives built on male privilege (Figure 1). Showcasing twenty women drawn from the hundreds represented in the International Archive, the exhibition rewarded visitors with fresh materials and new discoveries. As the title suggests, however, the show advanced two ambitious, if ultimately competing, curatorial aims: to offer a critique of gender inequity within the architectural profession, as the fittingly architectural metaphor of the glass ceiling suggested, and to further the celebratory, recuperative project for which these archival collections were originally built. Figure 1 Glass Ceilings (author's photo, courtesy Virginia Center for Architecture, Richmond) Founded in 1985 by the Bulgarian-born architect Milka Bliznakov, the International Archive of Women Architects (IAWA) is now a joint project of Virginia Tech's University Libraries and College of Architecture and Urban Studies. Its stated mission is to “document the history of women's contributions to the built environment by collecting, preserving, storing and making available to researchers the professional papers of women architects, landscape architects, designers, architectural historians and critics, and urban planners, and the records of women's architectural organizations.”1 While materials from the IAWA have been showcased in previous exhibitions, including Contributions of Women Architects …

Maternal and Neonatal Morbidities Associated With Obstructive Sleep Apnea Complicating Pregnancy

Objective The objective of the study was to estimate the maternal and neonatal morbidities associated with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in pregnancy. Study Design Women delivering between 2000–2008 with confirmed OSA in an academic center were included. Normal-weight and obese controls were randomly selected at a 2:1 ratio. Maternal and neonatal morbidities were compared between the groups. Multivariate analyses were performed to evaluate maternal morbidity and preterm birth (PTB). Results The analysis included 57 pregnancies complicated by OSA. Compared with normal-weight (n = 114) controls, OSA patients had more preeclampsia (PET) (19.3% vs 7.0%; P = .02) and PTB (29.8% vs 12.3%; P = .007). Controlling for comorbid conditions, OSA was associated with an increased risk of PTB (odds ratio [OR], 2.6; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.02–6.6), mostly secondary to PET (63%). Cesarean delivery (OR, 8.1; 95% CI, 2.9–22.1) and OSA were associated with maternal morbidity (OR, 4.6; 95% CI, 1.5–13.7). Conclusion Pregnancies complicated by OSA are at increased risk for preeclampsia, medical complications, and indicated PTB.

Subject and object

I wanted to get into the real world – not that the Jane Drew world was very real, considering what was going on. We were fiddling around with six, I think it was, wartime agricultural cottages and then Jane got this famous job of Kitchen Consultant to the Gas Council. She was appointed to do kitchens because women architects were supposed to know about kitchens.

Review: Arquia/documental

Arquia/documental , documentary film collection, DVDs with accompanying text, each €18, Fundacion Caja de Arquitectos, Madrid, http://www.arquia.es/fq\_site/new\_documentales.asp 1. (2 films, 2 discs) Marc-Henri Wajnberg, director. Oscar Niemeyer: Un arquitecto Comprometido/Oscar Niemeyer, un architecte engage dans le siecle . Belgium, 2000, text by Josep M. Botey, Portuguese with Spanish subtitles, 60 min. Geraldo Motta, director. Lucio Costa: Brasilia y la Utopia Moderna/The Line: Lucio Costa and the Modern Utopia/O risco: Lucio Costa e a utopia moderna . Brazil, 2003, text by Josep M. Botey, Portuguese with Spanish subtitles, 76 min. 2. Daryl Dellora, director. Jorn Utzon: El Limite de lo Posible/The Edge of the Possible: Jorn Utzon and the Sydney Opera House . Australia, 1998, text by Rafael Moneo, English with Spanish subtitles, 56 min. 3. Nathaniel Kahn, director. Louis I. Kahn: Mi Arquitecto/Louis I. Kahn, My Architect: A Son's Journey . USA, 2004, text by Antonio Juarez, English with Spanish subtitles, 116 min. 4. (2 parts, 2 discs) Manu Rewal, director. Le Corbusier en la India, 1a Parte: Ahmedabad y El Capitolio de Chandigarh/Le Corbusier en Inde, 1re partie: Ahmedabad et Chandigarh. Le Corbusier en la India, 2a parte: El Capitolio de Chandigarh/Le Corbusier in India, 2nd part: The Capitol of Chandigarh . India/France, 2000, text by Josep Quetglas and M. Cecilia O'Byrne, English and French with Spanish subtitles, 52 and 48 min. 5. Mirjam von Arx, director. Norman Foster: Construir el Gherkin/Building the Gherkin . Switzerland, 2000–2005, text by Luis Fernandez Galiano, English with Spanish subtitles, 90 min. 6. Fredrik Gertten, director. Santiago Calatrava: El Socialista, el Arquitecto y la Turning Torso/Sossen, Arkitekten och det Skruvade Huset . Sweden, 2005, text by Josep Maria Montaner, Swedish and English with Spanish subtitles, 60 min. 7. Arun Khopkar, director. Charles Correa: Volumen Cero/Charles Correa: Volume Zero . India, 2009, text by Joseph Rykwert and Anatxu Zabalbeascoa, English with Spanish subtitles, 58 min. 8. Markus Heidingsfelder and Min Tesch, …

A Sense of the Past

When Dianne Harris, first vice-president of the Society of Architectural Historians, invited me to deliver this plenary talk, she asked me not only to highlight the challenges that face historians of the built environment, but also to outline some of the innovative interdisciplinary methodologies that have been developed in recent years.1 My presentation this evening will thus focus on two questions: first, how do we——as historians, preservationists, critics, and scholars——gain access to evidence that can help us document and understand the poetics and the politics of architecture and spatial experience; and second, what methods of interpretation might we use, and what questions might we ask, as we try to make sense of the history and meaning of buildings, cities, landscapes, and built environments? Before I begin, I would like to take note of the contributions of the many friends and colleagues I've worked with over the course of the many years that I've been a member of the SAH——and I want to say, at the outset, that the best part of working in this field is, for me, having the opportunity to collaborate, to talk, to visit buildings, and to share ideas and experiences with a group of like-minded women and men. Thinking back on the sessions I've heard at these annual meetings, and the ones I've participated in——sessions that focused on topics ranging from women architects, to gender, to what Eve Blau and I called The Politics of the Plan, to Gay Space, and, a few years back, to one on Luxury——I'm struck by the ways in which our thinking about architecture, and my own approach in particular, has evolved. When I first started out in this field as a graduate student, our battle cry clamored for more attention to the contributions of women, for more interdisciplinarity and …

Designing Sapphic Modernity

ABSTRACTThis article addresses the question of why so many of the women involved in the practice and profession of interior design during the early part of the twentieth century were what we might now identify as lesbians. While design historians have acknowledged these women's non-heterosexualities, the connection between female sexual dissidence and modern interior design has been left largely underexplored and undertheorized. In the spirit of historical inventiveness which characterizes most work on the aesthetic cultural history of sexuality I argue that these women's designs were importantly involved in creating the historical spaces of sapphic modernity, and that the growing field of sapphic modernity has itself been designed by these women's works. Overall, I suggest that modern interior design was a critical site for the regulation and contestation of sexuality, and generate a speculative theoretical framework for understanding the centrality of women's design works to the generation of a sexually dissident, sapphic modernity.