The end of an era, start of new beginnings

Abstract

This thesis focuses on the Women’s Studies section at the Faculty of Architecture in Delft, active from 1978 to 1998. The initial goal of the section was to contribute to the elimination of women's oppression by expanding the knowledge of this social reality. The emergence of the second feminist wave in 1960 in the Netherlands motivated women to establish female study groups, to link societal changes to the academic content. In 1977, architecture students in Delft followed this trend and organized female consultations at the Faculty of Architecture. They started sharing personal experiences concerning the women’s movement linked to their position within the faculty and the architectural profession in general. Despite internal disagreement from the faculty’s dean, the consultations ultimately led to the official course of Women’s Studies in 1978. The goal of the course shifted during the first years from the “oppression of women in the built environment” into a more scientific field of the “construction of gender differences”. In 1986, staff members started questioning the future of the section. They believed that two scenarios were possible for the development of Women’s Studies: the section could continue as a separate study field or integrate with existing research areas. Unfortunately, for the future of feminist studies at the Faculty of Architecture neither of these scenarios became reality. The section lost its support, and therefore the needed money flow, and got disbanded in 1998. The aim of this research is to link recent questions concerning the position of women in architecture to the achievements of the Women’s Studies section 40 years ago. The current activism is linked to the persistent gender gap in architectural practice, which shows that the topics covered by the Women’s Studies course are still relevant today. In the current women’s movement, the subject goes beyond the oppression of women and into intersectionality, in which the societal discrimination of multiple social groups comes to light. To bring about actual change, listening to and talking with the students is not enough. They need the right resources to take that next step in the women’s movement to eliminate inequality and exclusion in universities.