Yes, You Can Be an Architect and a Woman!’ Women in Architecture: Queensland 1982-1989

Abstract

From the 1970s social and political changes in Australia and the burgeoning feminist movement were challenging established power relationships and hierarchies. This paper explores how in the 1980s groups of women architects actively took positions that were outside the established professional mainstream. A 1982 seminar at the University of Queensland galvanised women in Brisbane to form the Association of Women Architects, Town Planners and Landscape Architects. Formally founded the association was multi-disciplinary and not affiliated with the established bodies. Its aims included promoting women and working to reform the practice of these professions. While predominately made up of architects, the group never became part of the Royal Australian Institutes of Architects, it did inject itself into its activities, spectacularly sponsoring the Indian architect Revathi Kamath to speak at the 1984 RAIA. For five years the group was active organising talks, speakers, a newsletter and participating in Architecture Week. In 1984 an exhibition ‘Profile: Women in Architecture’ featured the work of 40 past and present women architects and students, including a profile of Queensland’s then oldest practitioner Beatrice Hutton. Sydney architect Eve Laron, the convenor of Constructive Women in Sydney opened the exhibition. There was an active interchange between Women in Architecture in Melbourne, Constructive Women, and the Queensland group, with architects such as Ann Keddie, Suzanne Dance and Barbara van den Broek speaking in Brisbane. While the focus of the group centred around women’s issues such as traditional prejudice, conflicting commitments and retraining, its architectural interests were not those of conventional practice. It explored and promoted the design of cities and buildings that were sensitive to users including women and children, design using natural materials and sustainability. While the group only existed for a short period, it advanced positions and perspectives that were outside the mainstream of architectural discourse and practice. Nearly 40 years on a new generation of women is leading the debate into the structural inequities in the architectural profession which are very similar to those tackled by women architects in the 1980s.