What modes of ‘resigned accommodation’ are practised by women architects, and what ‘usurpatory strategies’ do they undertake to ‘challenge male monopolies’?
The next (double) issue of Architectural Theory Review, edited by Naomi Stead, will address these questions, under the theme ‘Resigned Accommodation and Usurpatory Strategies: Women, Practice, Architecture’.
Contributors are invited to reflect on the essay “Women Architects and Their Discontents” by Bridget Fowler and Fiona Wilson, first published in 2004 in Sociology 38 no. 1. This important essay is a catalyst for contributors to address the material and cultural constraints and the social relations that condition women’s participation and progression in architectural practice today.
The call for papers asks:
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’?
This call has generated a strong response, and the double issue will be out in November 2011.
