Where are the Women Architects?
Despina Stratigakos, Ph.D., Professor of Architecture at the University of Buffalo, lectured about gender inequality within architecture as a part of the Dialogoues_ lecture series in the School of Architecture at the Univeristy of Tennessee on Monday, Jan. 30, 2017.
Women have broken barriers within other professions, such as medicine or law, but women in architecture have not seen the same progression. While women make up about 40 percent of architecture students, only 19 percent of architecture professionals are women.
Stratigakos mentions that there’s also a significant pay gap between male and female architects. Female architects will earn an average of $80,oo0 per year, and male architects with the same level of experience will earn approximately $100,ooo per year.
It wasn’t until 2004 that a woman, Zaha Hadid, would be awarded with the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize.
So, to help bridge the gap of sexism within architecture, Architect Barbie is introduced.
Architect Barbie was the result of a 2002 public vote by Mattel to determine Barbie’s next career. However, the company decided not to follow through with production because architecture “was beyond the comprehension of little girls”.
This changed in 2011 when Stratigakos would team up with fellow architect, Kelly Hayes McAlonie, and Mattel to help design the doll. After negotiations about whether Architect Barbie would wear slacks or black clothes versus pink, the decision was made that she would wear a dress.
This was important to Stratigakos because it combined girl power with a hard hat, something largely represented as masculine.
“We had a message to deliver to little girls that they could be architects. Whatever you may think about Barbie, it’s hard to deny her tremendous power as a cultural icon. Girls are proprietary about her. They know the doll is just for them. She has the power to make things seem natural to little girls,” said Stratigakos.
At the end of the lecture was a plea to falcuty to make diveristy a vital role in their teaching to help continue this third wave of feminism in architecture.
Despina Stratigakos is the author of three books. She received her Ph.D. from Bryn Mawr College and taught at Harvard University and the University of Michigan before joining the Department of Architecture at the University at Buffalo.
