Creating Change
Profiles:

Ethel May Charles
(1871 – 1962)

Eileen Gray
(1878 – 1976)

Edith Burnet Hughes
(1888 – 1971)

Elizabeth Denby
(1894 – 1965)

Elizabeth Whitworth Scott
(1898 – 1972)

Gertrude Leverkus
(1899 – 1976)

Judith Ledeboer
(1901 – 1990)

Sadie Speight
(1906 – 1992)

Margaret Brodie
(1907 – 1997)

Mary Medd
(1907 – 2005)

Elizabeth Benjamin
(1909 – 1999)

Jane Drew
(1911 – 1996)

Justin Bianco White
(1911 – 2001)

Rosemary Stjernstedt
(1912 – 1998)

Monica Pidgeon
(1913 – 2009)

Diana Rowntree
(1915 – 2008)

Patricia Tindale
(1926 – 2011)

Alison Smithson
(1928 – 1993)

Corinne Bennett
(1935 – 2010)

Catherine Cooke
(1942 – 2004)

Weblinks

  • Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation
  • International Archive of Women in Architecture (IAWA)
  • The Women’s Library
  • Women’s audio archive
  • Women Gaining Recognition; English Heritage
  • Women’s History; English Heritage
  • Women and Housing; English Heritage

Medialinks

“A Girl is a fellow here”, 100 women architects in the studio of Frank Lloyd Wright

  • bwaf
  • vimeo

Women’s Places: architecture and design 1860 – 1960, Brenda Martin and Penny Sparke

  • google
  • routledge

Creating Change


“None of the standard histories of British architecture discuss the role of women in the profession. Yet involvement of women in architecture as designers, as well as builders, craftworkers, estate managers and improvers, writers, theorists and clients can be readily established. Women’s role as estate managers in the late 15th and 16th centuries preceded their participation as designers of buildings in the amateur tradition in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, since the 1880s women have contributed professionally and substantially to architecture in Britain.”
    Lynne Walker
    The Entry of Women into the Architectural Profession in
    Britain, Women’s Art Journal 7, No1, Spring-Summer 1986

Creating Change
Welcome to the WiA Creating Change Catalogue which provides information on past illustrious UK based women who have, through their life and work, contributed to our society and to equality and diversity in the profession. The Catalogue is a continuously evolving resource recording the names, biographies and work of female architects, designers and women who have worked in the built environment. 

The Catalogue begins in 1898 when Ethel May Charles became the first female member of the RIBA. Architectural educational became accessible to women only in 1902, when Liverpool University allowed them to enroll in the architectural department, followed by the Glasgow School of Art in 1905 and the University of Manchester in 1909. The Architectural Association, which produced the most recognised group of women architects of the period, commenced in 1917.

The Creating Change Catalogue is an accessible and collaborative venture, and we welcome proposals for profiles of women in architecture and research and links to women in the built environment professions. We also welcome research papers, publications and any appropriate digital imagery or material to develop new and existing profiles.
To nominate a profile or submit information please contact us under: contact(at)women-in-architecture.com