Women, Gender + Modern Architecture

This class explores the intersections between gender, women, and modern architecture, examining themes such as domestic reform, images of the New Woman, transformations in life style, institutional changes in the architectural profession, fashion and surface, the question of a “feminist” or queer aesthetic, and technology and feminism. This course will focus on the period 1920 to 1980, but it will also consider how the developments in this period have influenced gender constructions and institutional changes in the profession up to the present. After an introductory lecture about recasting architecture history to include further women and gender issues, the class will examine several primary (historical) texts raising issues relative to women and space. It will then investigate several topics in modern architecture that concern gender and women’s institutional and social status in the past century, and how both the profession and architectural history might be recast to further include women and LGBTQ subjects. These topics include: an expansion of what architectural historians have traditionally considered the boundaries of architecture to encompass areas where women have traditionally been engaged, such as domestic reform, interior design, and housing reform; an examination of gender connotations in the rhetoric in architectural theory and criticism; a focus on institutional parameters that have limited, shaped, or even encouraged women’s practice and participation in the profession; studies of women patrons and users; and attention to different forms of collaboration in architectural practice. The course will conclude with a brief consideration of intersectionality and its implications for architectural history, as well as a discussion of new approaches for addressing gender issues. While the focus will be on women and the implications of a feminist perspective in architecture, it is hoped that many of the issues raised will also be relevant to LGBTQ issues in architecture.

In addition to seminar discussions and presentations, there will also be several guest speakers who will discuss subjects directly related to the course. These talks will either occur within the class session or immediately following the class.