WHERE ARE THE WOMEN ARCHITECTS?

For a century and a half, women have been
proving their passion and talent for building and, in recent decades,
their enrollment in architecture schools has soared. Yet the number of
women working as architects remains stubbornly low, and the higher one
looks in the profession, the scarcer women become. Law and medicine, two
equally demanding and traditionally male professions, have been much
more successful in retaining and integrating women. So why do women
still struggle to keep a toehold in architecture? Where Are the Women Architects? tells the story of women's stagnating numbers in a profession that
remains a male citadel, and explores how a new generation of activists
is fighting back, grabbing headlines, and building coalitions that
promise to bring about change.

Despina Stratigakos's provocative
examination of the past, current, and potential future roles of women in
the profession begins with the backstory, revealing how the field has
dodged the question of women's absence since the nineteenth century. It
then turns to the status of women in architecture today, and the
serious, entrenched hurdles they face. But the story isn't without hope,
and the book documents the rise of new advocates who are challenging
the profession's boys' club, from its male-dominated elite prizes to the
erasure of women architects from Wikipedia. These advocates include
Stratigakos herself and here she also tells the story of her involvement
in the controversial creation of Architect Barbie.

Accessible, frank, and lively, Where Are the Women Architects? will be a revelation for readers far beyond the world of architecture.