Women In Architecture
Of what historic and contemporary concern
is it that the architecture
profession has been, and continues to be,
strongly male dominated in Australia
(currently 90% of registered architects
in NSW are men). Ideally, what
proportion of the profession should women
occupy and why? From the start of
human history, we always experience certain
level of inequality between sexes.
It can be seen everywhere around the
world and is a concern to everyone, both
men and women. This inequality is an
important issue within the workforce of
many professions, such as being an
architect, landscape architect, city planners
and designers within the built
environment. Industrial revolution is the onset
for women to become
segregated from home, creating greater spatial division to
impact on gender
roles. There is common concept between the relationship of
public and private
space with male and female as described by Kate Lyons. This model represents the
suburbanisation occurring in the late 19th
century and the early 20th
century. Many suburban women are forced within their
daily activities due to
the constraints on accessibility and mobility in
low-density suburbs and lead
to a feeling of being isolated from the inner city.
These constraints of
this gender role affect the women's ability in the broader
professions within
the built environment, as they were restricted at home.
"... Architects do
not like to employ women in their offices; contractors
do not like to build
from their plans; people with money to spend do not like to
entrust its
expenditure to a woman." This is probably due to the fact that
women are kept
at home without 'knowing much' of the 'outside world'; the design
professions
have intrigued women into marginal roles. Architects and other
similar
professional fields "have perceived women not as profession but as
passive
clients." From these, women are users of the designed built
environment as
there are only few to have the opportunity to design them. This
forces women
to adapt to the way environments have been designed (by men). There
is a
concern where many women architects, landscape architects, planners,
builders
and designers such as Catharine Beecher, Louise Bethune. Eileen
Gray,
Julia Morgan, and others are not formally identified with
professions. Many of
their works have been credited to their male colleagues.
Another concern is that
there is a lack of sensitivity towards women's needs
within the built
environment. Design strategies and schemes often fail to
consider women as a
disadvantage group with exclusive needs, many of these
needs are inadequately
met or even un-met. This was evident in several Local
Environmental Plans and
Development Control Plans of the Sydney
Metropolitan area that had not
identified women as a disadvantage group to be
included amongst the handicapped
and elderly in design issue. Having
considered women's issues within the built
environment, in concluding one
must ask are the fundamentals of professions of
the built environment gender
biased? Whilst the outcomes of these are gender
biased, the fundamentals of
planning require subsequent analysis in order to
resolve the question. "...
not only do men and women view a common world
from different perspectives,
they view different worlds as well." The
issues raised are not subject to
strictly to women, but men also experience them
though with less intensity.
In addressing these issues a gender sensitive
environment will be beneficial
to all.
Bibliography
1.
Allen, J., Evidence and Silence:
Feminism and the Limits of History in Feminist
Challenges, 1986. 2.
Freestone, R., Florence Taylor: The Lady Town Planner of
Loftus Street in
New Planner, Dec 1991. 3. Hanna, B., Florence Taylor's Hats
in
Architecture Bulletin, Oct 1986. 4. Hanna, B., Three Ferminist
Analyses of the
Built Environment in Architectural Theory Review, vol. 1,
no.1, April 1996.