Women and' Houseplanning

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 103, 28 October 1933, Page 19

Women and' Houseplanning

Not long ago a' well-knowi woman remarked at a conference that if more women were employed in designing houses more attention would bo paid to the needs of the housowifo (states an English writer). ' Women, as. she truly remarked, spend a great deal of their time in the house, far moro than men do. The easy and economical running of the home depends on the housewife, who gains most by well-planned interiors and' labour-saving arrangements of many kinds .which are now to be seen in many houses, and in a very large' number, in the United States of America, _where • the woman architect, is beginning to play ah imprtrtant part in civic life. It would seem, therefore, that there is a big field for women in architecture, and it is probable she will find her best opportunity in 'the building -of small houses and flats. There is'no reason,, of course, why women architects should not build great buildings, butwhereas woman qua woman possesses no advantages over man in.the. construction of public buildings, she does perhaps to some extent in many forms of domestic architecture. ■■'''' Until recently there have been few women architects, although tho profession has always been open to women. Tho first woman architect qualified in 1900 in Britain, but before tho War there were'only three-women in independent practice, and a mere handful of assistants. But of recent years considerably more have taken tho training and are now working on their own in a few instances, or more usually, as assistants. Possibly the long training, normally five years, followed as a rule by a period spent in the office of an architect at a modest remuneration, has proved a bar to many women.