Each for Equal: 31 Groundbreaking Women

EACH FOR EQUAL:
31 GROUNDBREAKING WOMEN

HOSTED BY DESIGN DIALOGUES • APRIL 2020

“Would they still call me a diva if I were a man?” asked Zaha Hadid, challenging more than a century of stereotypes about women architects, while implicitly noting that how difficult the path has been. In celebration of International Women’s Month, the Davis Brody Bond Design Dialogues committee presented this exhibition of influential and groundbreaking women architects and designers from all over the world from twentieth-century icons such as Lina Bo Bardi, Julia Morgan, and Eileen Gray to current stars like Kazuyo Sejima, Jeanne Gang, and Grafton Architects.

The goal of the event to raise awareness of the challenges women in Architecture and Engineering fields have faced, not just historically but today — and yes, even at our own firm. Whether through actively speaking out or through their work, these women have made significant contributions to the profession, to humanity, and to breaking down the prejudices and barriers that have been systemic in our culture and our discipline.

The first person that was recorded to practice architecture was Imhotep, a man who served the Egyptian pharaoh Djoser around the year 2600 BCE; and it was not until 4,480 years later that the first female professional architect in the world, Louise Blanchard Bethune, was recognized. As architects from Julia Morgan to Natalie DeBlois to Denise Scott Brown have learned, even if you were on par with your male counterpart, you were seldom recognized as such. And knowing all of this, women still continued to push forward, doing what they believed was worth doing regardless of recognition.