A Case of Mistaken Identity: Changes in the Perception of FemaleArchitects in Puerto Rico

This paper relates to the practice of architecture by female architects in PuertoRico and their efforts to make themselves visible as professional women. Asmore women are presently becoming practitioners, this work attempts to showchanges in society’s attitude towards female architects by evincing the effortsof past generations in establishing themselves in the practice. From a CulturalHistory standpoint, it makes a critical analysis of the newspaper articles thatfeatured female architects published in the Island between 1945 and 2011,and argues that society was both fascinated and intimidated by these professionals.By analyzing their photos, this paper brings to light the way visualimages were manipulated to construct, in line with prevalent gender notions,the identity of the professional woman in the field of architecture. The imagesfound in the newspaper articles show how the press pigeonholed the femalearchitect into different archetypes, in an effort to normalize the identity of theprofessional woman. The opening article, published in 1945, deals with thefirst female architect in Puerto Rico and presents three pictures were genderperformance is literally staged as a way to deal with the ‘crisis’ brought on bythe Liberated Woman. Subsequent articles present female architects tryingto establish themselves in the profession as active participants, as studentsand as construction supervisors, while the press represented them foremost aswomen and then professionals.From the newspaper articles analyzed, this paper contends that the traditionalrole assigned to women as caretaker was woven into the practice, andshows how female architects accepted or struggled with society’s expectations.While female architects were trying to make their mark in society, thearticles published by the press evidence the systematic disregard they weresubjected to by the same institutions they were subjects of: the School, theProfession and the Family.

Volume Editors
Martha Thorne & Xavier Costa

ISBN
978-0-935502-83-1