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Is architecture a gender issue?

Could you name one, three or even five renowned female architects? And how many male ones?

The invisibility of female architects in the public arena is under scrutiny. The profession is rapidly changing, and its current context calls for reflection on this phenomenon.   

Professions to do with architecture, urban planning, development and landscaping are currently facing multiple political, economic, social and environmental challenges: a slowdown in the construction and housing market, explosion of competition, worsening working conditions, ecological issues due to an urgency to address global warming, etc.

New research is investigating how gender inequalities are fabricated in the worlds of architecture within a context of rapid change for the sociological composition of the occupational demography before and after #metoo. It shows that the dynamics of feminisation and gender inequalities in careers also consistently structure the profession. 

  • Châtelet A-M., Lapeyre N. (dir.), 2023, Les mondes de l’enseignement de l’architecture. Elèves, enseignants et enseignantes, Genève : MétisPresses.
  • Lapeyre N., 2023, « Le genre de l’architecture : enjeux et perspectives », in Bouysse-Mesnage S., Dadour S., Grudet I., Labroille A., et Macaire E., Dynamiques de genre et métiers de l’architecture, de l’urbanisme et du paysage, Paris : Éditions Parenthèses, p. 205-220.

    Nathalie Lapeyre is a member of the CERTOP Laboratory, University of Toulouse II Jean Jaurès: nathalie.lapeyre@univ-tlse2.fr


The feminisation of architecture

Women’s presence in education, from fine arts schools to architecture schools, and subsequently within agencies, has undergone an extensive evolution in historical terms. Not particularly welcome and sometimes even having use various strategies to force the workshop door, women have long been considered pioneers, especially during the early decades of the 20th century, as shown by the research of historian Stéphanie Bouysse-Mesnage.

Over the past fifteen years, and relatively quickly compared to other sectors of highly-skilled professions, the feminisation of architecture training courses has exploded in France. The percentage of female students graduating from the National Schools of Architecture (ENSA) became equal to that of their male counterparts in 2010; and in 2020 they became the majority at degree level, exceeding 58%. If this trend continues at the same pace, it’s quite probable that female graduates in architecture will not be far from 70% in 2030, or even 80% in 2040 (just like in medical studies).

Gender inequalities in careers

Do we see this same feminisation dynamic within professional staff? Not really. The numbers just don’t add up, and with only 30% of women enrolled in the Order of Architects in France (2021) the total number of women trained in architecture is not fully reflected in the official figures, although the percentage among younger generations is higher. Several ongoing studies are trying to assess this “loss” in an attempt to understand where female architects are positioned on the job market and how they contribute to the diversification of architecture professions. 

But how do these trades linked with the making of cities and territories contribute to the fabrication of gender inequalities? In fact, several mechanisms are at work, and feminisation is not immune to the traditional logics of gender segregation within the profession, which are particularly stubborn. This in turn creates gender inequalities within the modes of practice (for example, very few female architects become heads of agencies), an overrepresentation of women in salaried positions and average male architects earning 1.7 times that of their female counterparts.

Historical denial of female professionalism

The gender segregation of trajectories, which can be objectively measured thanks to statistics, also translates in a more symbolic way in the form of current discourses in the professional world that use and abuse the rhetoric to deny, ignore or minimise the professionalism of female architects, along with their qualifications and experience.

The fact that this form of gender-based violence exists is evident in most of the testimonies given by the female architects surveyed, regardless of their status (employee, associate, head of agency, teacher-researcher, etc.), and regardless of the historical period, both today in 2024 and in 1924 for those who graduated in the inter-war period: “Oh, you’re an architect? I had no idea!”. Therefore, resistance to feminisation persists both in time and space.

A plural feminisation

Several feminisation dynamics, with different paces and forms, can be identified within this large professional group and coexist in the same time frames.

“Sustainable feminisation” refers to a strong and ingrained form of feminisation which is sometimes relatively invisible and can resemble what is referred to as a “niche” (the case for urban planners or landscapers). It promotes the influx of new generations of women, while also powering sectors and professions that are already highly feminised (civil servants, local authorities, etc.).

An “unaccomplished feminisation” can be seen where feminisation is still resisting. Such is the case with liberal cabinet practice, which is tirelessly presented as the “canonical” architectural practice despite its only relative importance within the profession.

Finally, behind “subaltern feminisation” hides the figure of the perfect collaborator (mostly an employee) who acts as a project assistant (generally to a man). More meticulous, more thorough, more reliable than their male counterparts, there is no shortage of clichés to describe them. In high demand due to their technical and organisational skills, a guarantee of seriousness and rigour when carrying out architectural or urban projects, however, this limits female architects to the duties of seconds-in-command. They will therefore never be able to use their skills to access the higher level of direct project management. These same logics have already been analysed in other professional sectors, for example for engineers in the aeronautics sector.

Promotion of gender equality

The political agenda of gender issues and gender inequality is relatively recent in the architecture worlds, but particularly prominent in a post-#metoo context that has widely denounced sexual and gender-based violence, especially in the world of culture. For example, the implementation of gender mainstreaming or an integrated approach to equality has made it possible to develop awareness actions among staff at the National Schools of Architecture and gradually set up local commissions dedicated to these issues, a roadmap for Equality 2019-2022 by the Ministry of Culture aiming for true equality in the field of architecture and its various professions, etc.

Consecration systems and “star system”

Criticism of consecration systems is no exception: what about the reputation of female architects, the recognition processes, the functioning of the architecture consecration system internationally? How many Pritzker Prizes (the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in architecture) have women lost out on throughout history, besides the well-known example of Denise Scott-Brown whose husband Robert Venturi was awarded the distinction in 1991 and was not allowed to share the award despite the many protests and a lifetime of common architectural creations?

Zaha Hadid was in fact the first to receive the Pritzker Prize in 2004, marking the beginning of the visibility of female architects at an international level. But we would then have to wait another 16 years, specifically until the year 2020, before two female Irish architects, Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara, responsible for two campuses in France (that of the Toulouse School of Economics and that of Mines-Télécom in Saclay) would win the award with no male mediation, that is, not sharing it with their spouse or male colleagues.

Are these recent events a sign of undeniable progress in the professional recognition of the works and achievements of female architects? The next few years will tell.

Architecture and feminism

Recent interest in the issue of the feminisation of architecture has made it possible to extend the research questions to new, particularly stimulating, issues on the gender of architecture. Feminist epistemologies have unveiled new perspectives in recent years, revealing the feminist potential for the transformation of architecture and architectural practices.

How do we deconstruct a vision of the city and territories designed by and for men?

How do we link environmental, climate and feminist practices when designing projects on the global vision of architecture or the use of techniques and materials? How can we rethink the gendered uses of space, public and private, to enable free movement for women both during the day and at night? How can we include feminist planning proposals and citizen participation issues in architectural and urban programmes? And, ultimately, how do we challenge the widely sexist and heteronormative vision of architecture? What solutions can we apply to the creation process of the urban and architectural fabric?

How do the issues of conjugality and/or sexualities at work hinder women’s careers in architecture? And, combined with sexism, could new and aggravating factors of hardship at work develop? In which contexts does the issue of sexual and gender-based violence in the workplace emerge? How is it integral to women’s ordinary professional experiences? What links can be made with challenging the sacrosanct “burnout culture”, which involves a temporal investment in non-standard work, barely compatible with one’s personal life and ever-present among young generations of architects?


  • Bouysse-Mesnage S., 2023, Les pionnières. Architectes en France au xxe siècle. Les femmes élèves du troisième atelier d’Auguste Perret à l’École des Beaux-Arts (1942-1954), Thèse de doctorat d’histoire de l’architecture, Université de Strasbourg et ENSAS, janvier.
  • Dadour S. (dir.), 2022, Des voix s’élèvent. Féminismes et architecture, Paris : Éditions de La Villette.
  • Lapeyre N., 2023, « Système de genre et ségrégation sexuée des carrières en école d’architecture », in Châtelet A-M., et Lapeyre N. (dir.), Les mondes de l’enseignement de l’architecture. Elèves, enseignants et enseignantes, Genève : MétisPresses, p. 22-238.
  • Lapeyre N., 2019, Le nouvel âge des femmes au travail, Paris : Presses de Sciences Po.

Illustration d’Adèle Huguet pour Mondes Sociaux : licence CC BY-NC-ND
Pour découvrir ses dessins, https://adelehuguet.wordpress.com/
 
Crédits images en CC : Juicy_fish, Backwoods_VectorPortal, Afitrose, Freepik

 For other articles in english


OpenEdition vous propose de citer ce billet de la manière suivante :
Nathalie Lapeyre (15 septembre 2025). Is architecture a gender issue? Mondes Sociaux. Consulté le 19 janvier 2026 à l’adresse https://doi.org/10.58079/14nwn


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