‘Resigned accommodation and usurpatory strategies’: Women, Practice, Architecture

Each thematic issue of Architectural Theory Review focuses on a specific compelling object – whether a text, a drawing, a building, or otherwise – the implications of which are reviewed by the contributors to that issue. In this call for papers, we invite submissions which reflect on a keynote essay, ‘Women Architects and Their Discontents’ by Bridget Fowler and Fiona Wilson, first published in 2004 in Sociology (38(1): 101-119). The essay is significant in that it builds a theory of practice for women architects, using a theoretical framework and methodological tools drawn from the discipline of sociology. Specifically, Fowler and Wilson use architecture as a case study of a ‘typical masculine-dominated profession,’ and draw on the work of Pierre Bourdieu to argue that in architecture there is a tendency to ‘naturalize domination.’ Fowler and Wilson aim to

‘clarify the material and cultural constraints that block the path to gender progress. It is only by grasping the social relations on which women’s participation is premised that equal access to the fields of modern professional performance can be granted.’

In this special issue of ATR, we invite contributors to address these material and cultural constraints, and the social relations that condition women’s participation and progression in architectural practice today. For this issue, Fowler and Wilson’s text should be seen as a catalyst: it may be a point of origin or departure, revision or re-evaluation, approached directly or on the oblique.

Is it true that ‘the route towards equal participation of men and women in the architectural profession is likely to be arduous’? As Fowler and Wilson ask, ‘[w]hat deeper structural continuities explain why the profession of architecture continues to be such unfavourable territory for women?’ Could it be that the self-perception among architects, of a profession that is progressive, liberal, and meritocratic, is actually a barrier to equality – is there a discrepancy between ‘the egalitarian rhetoric of architecture and its backstage realities’? What modes of ‘resigned accommodation’ are practiced by women architects, and what ‘‘usurpatory’ strategies’ do they undertake to ‘challenge male monopolies’?

We invite approaches from the history and theory of architecture, and feminist architectural theory. We particularly solicit interdisciplinary perspectives, with analyses originating in scholarly disciplines outside of architecture, including the sociology of work, gender studies, management studies, organizational behaviour, feminist theory, ethical philosophy, and others. We invite comparative perspectives, which make associations and distinctions between architecture and other professions and models of work. Case studies and comparisons between different international contexts, and different historic periods, are also welcome. Innovative modes of scholarship including visual research are encouraged.

Specific questions and approaches might include:
• What effects have the policy and initiatives of professional associations and institutions had on gender equity in architectural practice? What effects have broader government policies had?

• What has been the effect of legal regulation and registration of the profession on gender equity?

• How is gender equity in architecture affected by shifts in the wider economy, particularly recession – are male and female architects equally vulnerable in times of financial crisis?

• How has feminist architectural theory been taken up or resisted by women architects in practice, and what have been the pragmatic consequences of feminist architectural theory?

• Examinations of the design and implementation of strategies to improve women’s workforce participation in architecture, their retention and advancement to senior levels of the profession

• Examinations of how gender participates in the development and reproduction of professional identity in architecture, and the ways in which the image of the profession is gendered

• Examinations of how gender features in innovation in the practice and design of architecture; what are the economic and other benefits of gender diversity in architecture?

• Examinations of why women leave the architectural profession, and where they go

• Ethnographic studies of architectural office practice and culture

If you wish to contribute to this open call, please contact Naomi Stead (n.stead@uq.edu.au) in the first instance to register your interest and receive an electronic copy of the keynote article. All texts selected for publication will be subject to a process of double blind review and independent proofreading. Full papers should be submitted via the journal’s website: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/13264826.asp. The deadline for submission of full texts is 8 January 2012.

Naomi Stead, Co-editor, Architectural Theory Review