Despina Stratigakos on Women in Architecture
Abitare, an international design magazine, profiles award-winning faculty member, noting her efforts to champion architecture as a career for women
"I cannot overstate the importance of women architects mentoring young girls." (Despina Stratigakos in her interview with Abitare magazine)
Published August 24, 2017 This content is archived.
Abitare magazine recently featured architectural historian, professor and champion of Architect Barbie, Despina Stratigakos. In her interview, Stratigakos discusses the status of women in architecture, the need for a supportive professional community for men and women, and changing the gender narratives in academia, architecture firms, and beyond.
Though the word “feminism” has hardly caught on in most architectural circles, as a movement, feminism has provided a framework to rethink architecture as a practice, where a lack of diversity continues to hold back the field in a rapidly changing world. The impact of feminism in architecture today has a broader scope, as family and work/life balance issues are increasingly relevant to men as well as women. In our interview with her, Sarah Wigglesworth argued that “feminism stresses the connection between the personal and the political; these two facets need to be brought closer together to reflect the realities of women’s, and increasingly men’s, lives.” For our second interview with Despina Stratigakos, we continue the discussion of women in architecture by looking at the narratives around feminism and gender in architecture schools, firms, and society in general.
Read the full interview and listen to three edited audio clips of Abitare's interview with Stratigakos.