Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A timely and important search for architecture's missing women

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.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Stratigakos's (architecture, State Univ. of New York at Buffalo) collection of essays is an excellent introduction to the recurring question that serves as the volume's title. In the first essay, the author summarizes the historical context and women's entry into architectural schools and practice in the Western world. Next, she looks at the current state of females in the profession, which continues to lag behind the progress toward gender equity that has been made in other fields such as medicine and law. The additional essays focus on recent occurrences in the story of women in architecture: the controversy surrounding the "Architect Barbie" doll, the gendered criticism directed at Pritzker Prize winner Zaha Hadid, the petition for Denise Scott Brown to receive a belated Pritzker Prize, and the sometimes contested efforts to include women architects in -Wikipedia. The author doesn't have all the answers but does point to possible contributing factors, such as a lack of role models and mentors for women architects. VERDICT A compact but thorough introduction to a surprisingly persistent question: Where are the women architects?-Amy Trendler, Ball State Univ. Libs., Muncie, IN © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

The first woman to graduate from an architecture program did so 140 years ago, and women still "struggle to gain a foothold in the profession" today, according to Stratigakos (A Woman's Berlin: Building the Modern City) in her slim but sharp volume on problems women face in the architecture profession. The author starts by looking at ways in which women have contributed to the field and the rise of modern design movements. When Robert Venturi was awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1991, scant mention was made of his design partner and wife, Denise Scott Brown. Stratigakos explains that the omission was glaring-the husband and wife team had worked together for three decades. Thirteen years later, when Zaha Hadid became the first woman to win the Pritzker Prize in 2004, the press remarked on her character as well as her work, such as Hadid's reputation for being "difficult" and a "diva," terms that Stratigakos argues "suggest a female excess and instability of emotion." Subsequent chapters explore biases "against women as innovative creators" and the dearth of female architects cited in academic texts and online resources. A chapter on the launch of the Architect Barbie doll in 2011 includes both the positive and negative reactions to the doll from the professional architect community, providing an accessible way to explore stereotypes among architects. Though these issues aren't necessarily unique to architecture, Stratigakos's concise, accessible book shows that they are nevertheless prevalent. (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

CHOICE Review

This passionate appeal for diversity in architecture addresses the obstacles women architects face despite the first wave of feminism in the 1870s, the second wave in the 1970s, and the current wave in the 21st century. Reviewing criticism of women architects from each historical period and citing surveys from architects, for the most part conducted over the last decade, Stratigakos (Univ. of Buffalo, SUNY) challenges stereotypes and refutes ideologies that have remained prevalent within general society and are operant within schools of architecture, architectural organizations, and the profession. In making her appeal, which is reminiscent of feminist critiques of the 1970s, the author acknowledges the power of digital media to provide women with information about role models. Stratigakos encourages scholars and their students to contribute entries on women architects to user-edited sites--and to persist in doing so despite editorial censorship. The author devotes one of the book's five chapters to her work as a consultant for Mattel on the design of Architect Barbie--because, as she documents in this affirming volume, the toy engages children, has been popular with architecture students, and promotes discussion about the minority status of women among practitioners in the field. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers. --Deborah H. Cibelli, Nicholls State University

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Despina Stratigakos is associate professor and interim chair of architecture at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York. She is the author of Hitler at Home and A Woman's Berlin: Building the Modern City .