THE FEMALE GENDER,

ARCHITECTURE
AND THEIR CONSTRAINTS.
Mara Jos Garca Concha HTS 2

There are many possible definitions among which to choose with the aim of explaining the
significance of architecture being, fortunately, all of them valid as architecture is a broadmeaning field depending on the perception that every single person experiments from it either
as a user or as the creator. "Space (s)" could be one of the chosen words to describe what the
meaning of architecture is as briefly as possible; understanding it as surfaces, heights, volumes,
communications and the place where lives are developed. But is there space in architecture for
the equality of those who dedicate to it or are we facing a clear example of discrimination in
both a personal and professional way?
Throughout history an idealization of this field and its professionals has been tended by
making, in most of the cases, a limited circle out of it to whom only a few could access and in
which it seemed necessary to have something else apart from the interest of receiving an
education and creating in order to belong to: to be a genius is required and, preferably, male.

ARCHITECTURE, FE(MALE) AND HOSTILITY___________________________________________

The female. A gender as important as essential in society and that, however, has never been
sufficiently appreciated to occupy its rightful place in the architectural practice. A very worrying
aspect in the field of architecture is the decreasing experienced in the percentage of female
students when they pass to the professional practice, dropping from a more than 50 per cent to
an approximately 20 per cent and this decline is not only produced when passing to the
professional field because, once there, significant percentage changes are also experienced.
According to a case study conducted by the RIBA, in the nearly three years comprised between
January 2009 and December 2011 the percentage of women dropped from 28 per cent to 21
1
per cent, respectively .

Female

Male

Female

Male

20%
50%

50%
80%

Architecture Education

Architecture Practice

Is, then, the field of architecture the reflection of a sexist, patriarchal or/and phallocentric
society?

Affirming that the cause of this gender discrimination lies in society would imply the beginning of
a search for excuses and pretexts that would only divert the attention away from the real scope
to examine: the practice of architecture. This is because, despite the fact that the origins of the
inclusion of women both in education and practice go back in time much more recently than
what respects the male gender, other professions have managed to achieve within the same
social context a worth admiring equality among their professionals. It is true, however, that the
inflexibility of their schedules, the long working hours and, in general, the way that the
architectural profession is developed, diverges it from reality and excludes it from society by
building an oblivious bubble out of it and in which all progress and social processes take longer
to occur. This does not signify, in spite of everything, the relegation of women to a secondary,
tertiary or quaternary place in the practice of the profession.
What could then be the reason for such a dramatic decline, with their consequential
professional absence, of the female gender in the field of architecture? Or being inversely
questioned, why do men stay and women leave?

1
2

UK Statistic from the Fees Bureau, 2010.

Neologism coined by Jacques Derrida to refer to the privileging of the masculine (phallus) in the construction of
meaning.

BUILDING AS BODY AND BODY AS GENDER

Francesca Hughes in her book The Architect Reconstructing Her Practice defends the opinion
that the absence of, in this case, women in the profession is due to a deep internal crisis at the
3
base of architecture, that is to say, early in its history . This statement excludes what has
already been mentioned above: that the discrimination suffered by the female gender in the field
of architecture does not lie in the more or less sexist society that exists nowadays but in its very
first foundations. Clearly, something has been done inadequately or, if it is preferred to say
otherwise, less well in the beginnings of its development.
The gender confrontation that is palpable from the beginnings of architecture lies in its own
4
essence, in its harmony and proportion . Ironically, it is what makes this art so beautiful that
which creates such a big distinction and leaves women apart, becoming almost inaccessible,
because speaking about harmony and proportion in architecture involves a direct and close
relation with the human body to the point that it is possible to say that talking about architecture
5
is, in a way, synonymous of talking about body but, then, what is it meant by body? The fact of
asking this question forces to include the notion of gender in the topic, dealing with the body as
6
that of a woman or a man without being both or, in extreme cases, none .
The ancients established relations of proportion between the various parts of the human body
(as it is in there where beauty lied) so that each part was in proportion to each other and in
relation to the whole, then all these relations of human proportionality along with their gender
inclusion were transferred to the buildings in one way or another.
In Greek temples, which are the masterpieces of Classical Architecture, it can be observed that
the columns, depending on the order to which they belong, establish direct relationships with
either female or male gender of the human body and this is where, for the first time, the roles of
both men and women were differentiated and reflected in a permanent way, originating the
7
supremacy of one over another. By focusing on their two main orders, Doric and Ionic , we
realize that the Doric was considered perfect by itself, which let it reflect on their slenderness
and on their sober yet elegant presence no ornaments were needed nor was anything
external required for it to be complete: it represented the naked man and his ideal perfection
(Image 1).

On the other hand, the Ionic, which at first glance may seem as a beautiful and elaborate
evolution of the sobriety of the Doric, consisted of an order that was ornamented and decorated
with the purpose of arousing admiration and desire and represents, as it could not be otherwise,
the female body, the woman. It was definitely not enough with her own body and presence that
she had to ornament herself, she had to cover her imperfect body to be able to seduce. To
seduce whom? The man. And it is at that moment in history, from the 5th century BC, when the
female gender was placed, through architecture, in the disposal of man admitting his superiority
or perhaps just simply resigning to it as there was nothing that could be done to avoid the
situation where she found herself (image 2).

Francesca Hughes, The Architect Reconstructing Her Practice, (The MIT Press Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
1996), p. XI
4
The architecture is art in its higher sense, it is mathematical order, it is pure theory, complete harmony thanks to the
exact proportion of all the relationships: this it is the function of the architecture. Le Corbusier, Vers une Architecture,
1923.
5
Diana I. Agrest, Assemblage , No. 7 (Oct., 1988), p. 30.
6
7

Agrest,30.
Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, The Ten Books On Architecture, p.55

Image 1

Image 2

However, the interest and confidence that the Greeks deposited in the human body figure was
such that it was extended way beyond their mere metaphorical representation in architectural
elements through its proportions, as it has been exposed only a few lines of text ago. Cases
could be found such as, for example, the caryatids or the atlants in which the body of the
woman or the man is used, respectively, as a literal architectural support. In the temple of
8
Erechtheion , specifically in The Porch of the Caryatids (image 3), its columns present a feminine
anthropomorphism and it can be observed how these women are the only structural element
such that they support the entire weight of the temple just with their body, particularly through
their head, although they do so in an extremely relaxed and serene manner. The atlants (image 4),
on the other hand, despite bearing the weight with their arms and not being the only structural
support element, show a great sense of tension and effort. Paradoxically, it is when it comes to
using this literal anthropomorphism that female gender is presented in an unchallenged
supremacy because she is the perfect support. To carry the weight of the building over her
shoulders is only one more of her many duties and responsibilities. She is the main pillar of the
temple in the same way that she is of the family or the perpetuation of mankind and, therefore,
the confidence on her body is full.

Image 3

Image 4

Once this point is reached, falling into the deception is an easy task as such superiority and
confidence placed in the body of the woman by the creative man or, in the same way, the male
architect (although the term itself was not in use at this time) is nothing but mere appearance
and what at first glance may seem as a point in favor of the feminine gender and a step forward

The Temple of Erechteion is an ancient Greek temple of the Acropolis of Athens. It was built between 421 and 406
BC.

in the long way ahead before reaching such an expected gender equality is actually a prison
without bars for the woman-caryatid: she can not leave her position because if this were to
happen the temple would fall down. This can be translated as a full prohibition of the
development of the life of women in other areas apart from that which involves staying at home.
The caryatid is for the temple what the woman is for the family: if she "abandons" her home with
the aim and the expectation of working outside of it and developing her life in a professional
way, the equilibrium would be destabilized and the familiar temple could end up collapsing. This
is the concept that was had when the Temple of Erechtheion was built in Athens during the fifth
century BC and that which is maintained in closer times to the present day. In the nineteenth
century, without going any further, the influence of Ancient Greek Architecture is still so present
that the architects from the United Kingdom, the United States of America and some other
European countries of this period of time in history were both easily and greatly influenced to a
large extent by it and they developed what is commonly known as "Greek Revival ", an
architectural movement or tendency that, among other things, aims to "find" beauty in the very
characteristic proportions and shapes of Ancient Greek buildings. This use of beauty implies
the same restrictive nature of the role of women in any professional field, but especially in the
one of architecture. The human body continues to be used for basing the proportions of the
buildings and the atlants and caryatids reappear without any added novelty in architectonic
works such as the portico of the New Hermitage Museum by the Russian sculptor Terebenev
Aleksandr Ivanovich in St. Petesbourg (image 5) and The St. Pancras New Church in London (image
6), respectively.

Image 5

Image 6

This does not end here and in the twentieth century, Greek ancient architecture remains a
benchmark of such dimensions that even Le Corbusier, considered the father of the influential
modernism in the architecture of the past century and to the present day, keeps the essence of
ancient architectural work. His admiration is such that he adopts the mathematical concept of
the golden ratio and includes it in its updated version of the Renaissance man of Vitruvius; The
Modulor or also known as the Vitruvian Modulor. He follows, thus, not knowing whether
9
intentionally or unintentionally, the principle of Alberti: "Man ... mode and measure of all things"
and thereby the female returns to be discriminated in architecture. The Modulor is greatly
present in the proportions of his buildings, even to the point that Le Corbusier states that Man

M. Dezzi, Bardeschi, E. Garin and others, Len B. Alberti, (Stylos, 1988), p.57.

10

sees architectural things with eyes that are 1.70 meters from the ground . This means that Le
Corbusier, despite continually photographing women in many of his projects and even in some
of the cases, like the Unit d'Habitation in Marseille, providing them with facilities and services
that released, apparently forever, their lives from housework, creates an architecture for and by
the man: in order to observe at the Modulor's eye level it is necessary to share its essence of
gender and women have no other choice but to adapt as much as possible to these spaces
dominated by the male gender. If, in addition to the above, we take into account the influence
that Le Corbusier and his principles still have in the architecture which rises today, it is not
surprising that women find difficulties to stay in this field from a professional point of view. This
can be seen and interpreted in the aforementioned caryatids of the Temple of Erechtheion
which, as already stated, are deprived of movement and located on the porch, a space which is
nothing but a transition between the outside and the inside, between the public and the private,
while they are oriented facing the outside but without access to it. Perhaps this was the origin
reason that led another architect, Adolf Loos, to address Le Corbusier defending the view that
11
"a cultivated man does not look out of the window" because it is an action related to women
which, if they do it, it is in search of that outer space that has been denied to her throughout
history.
The key to the insertion of the female gender in architectural practice resides in, for example,
unmasking the spatial divisions that are hidden behind the apparent impartiality and neutrality of
architecture to then rebuild them through their projects with a new outlook and a fresh look. In
reinterpreting architecture by retrieving that different way to relate with the space that woman
12
has and, that is well reflected in the paintings of the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo which seeks
not the dominion over it but the balance between herself and the surrounding nature (image 7) ,
which can be translated in terms of architecture in the works of Lina Bo Bardi: in particular, in
her Glass House (image 8) at the point in which "inhabitant" and space coexist in harmony with
"inhabitant" and environment, without any superiority of one over another, through the dwelling,
which functions as a connecting link and in which the barrier between interior and exterior space
established for centuries is diluted along the way and, with it, the gender-based differences in
space.

image 7 Frida Kahlo self portrait

10

Picasso Bull painting

Image 8

Mnica Cevedio, Arquitectura y gnero. Espacio pblico/ Espacio privado, (Icaria 2003, 2010), p.57.
Le Corbusier, Hacia una arquitectura, Towards an architecture. (Apstrofe), p.143.
11
Cevedio, 63
Beatriz Colomina, Sexuality and Space, (New York Princeton University Press 1992) p.72.
12
Cevedio, 31.The relation established between the two painters and nature varies widely. While Frida Kahlo has a peaceful and
balanced relation, Picasso observes animals as enemies and the virility of the male bull fighter is well reflected on his paintings.

Another way that can be considered as an option to facilitate the continuation of women in
practice and avoid her dropout is that of the feminine forms of architecture. Francesca Hughes
defended the following in one of her books:

Architecture, a container in more ways than one, is also figured as female [] So gender slips
into the body of architecture, via de body of woman. But within this process a crucial turn
allows the constitution of gender to shift from female to feminine: architecture [] is
feminine. Where does all of this troping leave the female? Casting architecture as feminine
renders its muse female and consequently induces a necessary crisis of identity for the female
architecture maker. How is the architect to be seduced by the muse, to succumb to her grace, if
she too is female? The muse, being feminine, is endowed with all of the features that will make
her the object of desire for men: voluptuous, half-clad, white and unavailable. By inviting a
relationship that must be sexual, that must be with men, in other words, she excludes the very
image that she projects. Any relationship that the female architecture maker might construct
with the muse must be oblique, slippery and unstable13.
If we understand organic architecture as the feminine architecture, characterized by its
seductive curves that are specific to women and its loss of the male orthogonality so
characteristic of the male-dominated modernism of the last century and which has already been
mentioned earlier, the question is the following: Do they not constitute, then, a link between
architecture and the female architect and not a barrier as the author states in her text?
In conclusion, an architecture where all the relations of proportionality based on the male body
that have been studied disappear, in one way or another, along these lines combined with an
architecture open to the space that permits the women as gender and as architect to renew
herself in historical terms and to rid herself of all these restrictions suffered throughout the
centuries, because the lack of embodied self-identity and equality that women have been
suffering through architecture (buildings and the elements of those) is neither the only or the
main reason for leaving the profession... While we continue studying from the masculine
principles of modernism and the concept of proportion and differentiation of public and private
space, where external and internal do not experience any change, architecture will remain an
art based on spaces but without space for women in it.

13

Francesca Hughes, p. XI.

Bibliography
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Editorial, 2003
Hughes, Francesca. The Architect Reconstructing Her Practice. The MIT Press Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, 1996.
Samuel, Flora. Le Corbusier architect and feminist. Wiley-Academy, 2004.
McEwen, Indra Kagis. Vitruvius Writing The Body of Architecture, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, 2003.
Dodds, George; Tavernor, Robert. Body and Building. Essays on the Changing Relation of
Body and Architecture, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2002.
Bayley,Stephen. Woman as design : before, behind, between, above, below. Conran Octopus,
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Diana I. Agrest. Architecture from without: body, logic and sex . Assemblage No. 7 (Oct., 1988) pp 28-41.