WOMEN IN ARCHITECTURE

     In the year 2017, a Danish architect, Dorte Mandrup once said, “I am not a female architect, I am an architect.” This strongly titled statement seemed to ring a bell for me, the phrases ‘women in architecture’ or ‘woman/female architect’ may appear anachronistic, are the quaint homages to a long gone patriarchal society or are they just anodyne to a creative profession? It is true that if a female architect today did not have to spend time debating her validity as a woman, society would benefit? This research paper endeavors to investigate the role of female architects in a professional framework and discusses about the topic long debated over `the women in architecture.`

      The gender chasm in architecture persists. The overarching theme of this text speaks to the complicated overlay of gender and racial problems that have created architectural practice a hegemonic area. This research takes explicit concern with “Women in Architecture” as a spectacle in today’s business; an industry that if truth be told has a clear and palpable lack thence. From the readings I’ve stumbled upon, distinguishing the problems has been skinny. However, a typical thread looks to be the financial gain gap and recognition between men and women who hold a similar position. architectural profession has very high gender difference and biases. The moneymaking system within the architectural profession varies in keeping with commission and project opportunity, that may be a issue to be cognizant of when reading these results. I’m not too certain what drives this trend in businesses with co-directors of various gender, however the problem prolongs. at the same time, there's the bigger prestigious driver of this trend: the social and academic culture of design. With increasing awareness of this inadequate representation of contributions made by women to the architectural industry, several organisations are seeking to address the lacunae by first addressing the missing chapter about women architects in the history of architecture before getting to the current problem of gender inequality.

      Despina Stratigakos, author of ’Where are all the women Architects’ paints the fact of the many-sided issue when saying, “Although women represent nearly half of design students, women are underrepresented among school, particularly in design branches. Course syllabuses additionally heavily favor men’s work and writings, leaving students with the impression that girls have contributed very little valuable.” However, so as to actually shift the image of design as a Le Corbusier cigar smoking white man sitting on his modernist chair, to a women with her geeky glasses, sitting on identical modernist chair.

      Previously, individuals accustomed suppose women didn't have enough logic. “Well, that's absolute nonsense. I don’t understand if its the ego of a person or however their mentality works, however there's no distinction in the least in capability, not formally in terms of the buildings at least. There can be variations in women’s leadership qualities or in their ego problems, however we are able to design within the same approach if we've the prospect.” – Says Zaha Hadid , who in 2013 vehemently criticised UK's "misogynist" perspective towards women architects after a survey of women within the profession found nearly a third knew they were paid less than their male counterparts for a similar job.

       Another major red dot was ascertained in 2013, when Lord Peter Palumbo, as the Chair on behalf of the Jury of the 2013 Pritzker architecture Prize addressed a letter to Arielle Assouline-Lichten and caroline James in response to a petition that they had raised to honour the notable contribution of Denise Scott Brown to the sphere of architecture, to the acclaimed practice of Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates, and a joint awarding of the celebrated prize that Robert Venturi alone was bestowed with in 1991. Denise Scott Brown had been a partner at the couple's practice, Venturi Scott Brown and Associates for twenty-two years and co-authored the seminal 1977 book, Learning from las vegas, when Venturi was awarded the prize. The petition for a retro-active award led by a gaggle of women from Harvard grad school of design gathered over 20,000 signatures together with from Zaha Hadid, Farshid Moussavi, hani Rashid and Robert Venturi himself. The campaign followed an address created by Scott Brown earlier within the same month, when she declared: "They owe me not a Pritzker Prize however a Pritzker inclusion ceremony."

      Denise Scott Brown, born in 1931 in what is today Zambia, is an American architect, educator and writer. She started studying architecture at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa from 1948 to 1952. She was also temporarily enrolled in liberal politics, which discouraged her because of the lack of acceptance of women. After later studying at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London and at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, she completed her masters degree in planning and urban sociology in 1960 in Pennsylvania and became instantly a faculty member and teacher. There she was teaching with Robert Venturi and in 1967 she joined his firm Venturi and Rauch and became principal in charge of planning. Later they changed the name to Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates. At the age of 88 now, Scott Brown is a veritable icon. The South African-raised, Philadelphia-based architect, urban planner, and theorist has received a slew of major awards in the field since the Pritzker controversy: the Gold Medal from the American Institute of Architects in 2016 with Venturi, to explicitly celebrate their joint creativity; the Jane Drew Prize from the Architectural Review in 2017; the Soane Medal from Sir John Soane’s Museum in London in 2018; and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Lisbon Architecture Triennial just last october. It would be a disservice to the breadth and complexity of Scott Brown’s ideas and projects to credit her chiefly as an instigator of architecture’s gender debate — all along she’s been a prolific writer, designer, and pedagogue just as well. Though a lifelong rootless cosmopolitan, Scott Brown doesn’t travel anymore. In fact, she rarely leaves the house. “I’m healthy the way I am here, and at risk of falling,” she explains. Yet for all the precautions of age, Scott Brown’s commitment to her work has hardly changed: “If I fell, I’d have to stop doing this work. And I’ve got too much still do to.” Says the poorly recognized legend and iconist for many women in architecture today.

      Scott Brown, 81, had been a partner at the couple's follow Venturi Scott Brown and Associates (now VSBA) for twenty two years once Venturi was awarded the prize, that is taken into account the foremost prestigious in architecture. She co-authored their seminal 1977 book Learning From las vegas and still works at the practice while Venturi, 88, currently retired. Whilst the proposition was rejected by The Pritzker Committee in this letter, it marked a seminal purpose within the discussions for gender parity within the discipline and profession of architecture. The letter went on record to notice that The Pritzker Committee ought to wish to thank them for career directly to their attention a a lot of general drawback, particularly that of reassuring women a good and equal place among the profession. Lord Peter says "Pritzker juries, over time, square measure created from completely different individuals, every of whom does his or her best to search out the foremost extremely qualified candidate. A later jury cannot re-open, or second guess the work of an earlier jury, and none has ever done thus."

      The letter adds that Scott Brown isn't disqualified from receiving the prize in future: "Ms. Scott Brown includes a long and distinguished career of architectural accomplishment. It'll be up to gift and future juries to see who among the numerous architects practicing throughout the globe receives future awards." it absolutely was an unfortunate oversight by the Pritzker design Prize committee to deny her of the popularity she undoubtedly had attained.

      Within the later years , Denise Scott Brown had never been keep regarding registration her chafe at being left off the 1991 Pritzker Prize, that visited her husband and collaborator Robert Venturi. She magnificently boycotted her husband’s ceremony, and once history vulnerable to repeat itself some years later, Venturi refused to just accept the AIA medal as a result of his wide and collaborator Denise Scott Brown wasn't included—again. Later when she was awarded the Jane drew Prize in 2017 Scott Brown referred it to the Pritzer disceptation and sequent petition saying "I was terribly touched by the Pritzker petition – which is my prize within the finish. 20,000 individuals wrote from everywhere the globe and each one in all them known as me, Denise." When the Prize’s contemporary jury issued a dissenting statement, claiming that they could not revisit the decision of a prior jury, it was received as a testament to the enduring chauvinism of an architectural establishment that was out of touch with the times. Scott Brown, though denied credit on one front, became a symbol of the discipline’s long-overdue and still-incomplete feminist turn. By galvanizing the discussion around gender equity and visibility in the profession, nearly three decades after she first began speaking about the grating realities of being relegated to second-class status, Scott Brown created the room for reckoning, discussion, and change that she’d first decried in her 1989 polemic text, “Room at the Top? Sexism and the Star System in Architecture.”

      This is only one example of our ignorance and the uncanny irony is, women aren't oppressed here. Women don't seem to be treated badly, there is no such issue. But, the calm of matters has established to be a pleasant cowl on our eyes. So what's the answer to this? Feminism? Depends on however you outline this word. It's extremely corrupted. Within the West you've got ladies dressing up and acting like men to point out however they require men to allow them to have their originality. A bit ironic isn't it. This is often not feminism. To instill inferiority complex within the heart of a married woman, as a result of your plan of freedom means working (Because that is usually what men do) isn't feminism. The housewife given credit for being the actual heart of the family that's creating these empty walls of a house to a home, that's feminism. Total freedom to a female to try and do as she pleases. To be a chief executive officer , or to be a housewife or no matter that she pleases to be. That's feminism. You needed to be an architect? You proved your ability by obtaining a degree and dealing within the field for years. Then, why are you silent once you get ten to fifteen less than your male colleague? Thankfully, times are ever-changing. With the youth of the day not willing to fall for these taught trends, by rejecting the patriarchal mentality likewise as deadly versions of feminism, it's moving towards constructive dialogues. It is true that women are considered to be physically weak compared to men, but talk about emotional strength? No chance the men can cope with that. As Eleanor Rosevelt once said, “ A women is like a tea bag , you never know how strong she is until put into hot water.” But the field of architecture is changing now, its growing, broadening its mindset, for the good. Architectural Professions are becoming more pluralistic and inclusive now. Simultaneously the number of women patrons are also increasing as they`re now starting to receive the same amount of work and recognition. There have been huge changes for women in terms of employment in the past decades, with women moving into paid employment outside the home in ways that probably their mentor female architects could only dream of. These changes have led to an increased sense of self-esteem among the women, who now have greater confidence to speak and participate in the affairs of the field.