Can the gender defines you?

veronica strippoli

Sailing for a journey through history, there are a lot of movements that paved the way to equality. We live in 2020, after centuries of struggle, we still cannot talk about equality between people. Even better, we cannot even claim that all over the world everybody is considered equal. However in some countries gender equality does exist, but can we really find this parity in working life or in daily life? The answer to this question is: probably no. We’re talking about equal opportunities, but the dialectics rarely turns into action. Not by chance, the subject matter in this article is part of the Agenda 2030 goals, with the hope to let gender equality affect people's minds and actions.

In an optimistic vision, we can see the future scene of the world without gender prejudice, which allows women and men to obtain the same goals attending the same procedural process. However, analyzing the current scenario, the way to success in most cases is uphill for women.

Various are the shades that this discussion can assume about gender equality. In my opinion, we need to focus on the female matter and how women walked the road to personal and professional affirmation. Women, since childhood, live wrapped prejudice halo, fed by feelings like inadequacy, imperfection, uncertainty. Society concieve female feelings as opposed to male ones. In fact, men are associated to great importance roles. This contrast brings back past times, when women were depicted like useless “objects” and in need of man care. Since the archaic vision, we have done big steps forward. Today the mindset is different. Women assert themselves like men, both in the personal sphere and in the professional one. In fact, most women work, a part of them wear top roles, once exclusively reserved for male figures.

But is it enough?

Suggesting a temporal analysis, giving a grade from one to ten, we could give just a seven to the current state, but improvable. This means that now women aren’t hindered by evident prohibitions, but surely the achievement of thier goals is not easy. The main problem is the following: the choices that induce to prefer male figures to female ones are related to their role in the society and family.

The real step forward to reach gender equality will be obtained when the prejudice barrier will be brought down. To do this it is not necessary to work on administrative or normative level, but it would be necessary to influence people's minds and actions.

That is fortunately already happening not just through strong activism, but also through real examples of women who destroyed the barrier by standing out in the world. The biggest revolution is silent, and it is carried on by women who went beyond conjecture, showing their values as a person, not defined by their own gender.

This issue concerns all professional spheres. This time I will be referring to “how” the gender question has affected the architectural world.

In the last century, the era of big political and economic changes, the first female movement was born. It has led women to affirmation. However, the architectural world is not a representation of these movements, especially if we look at the first half of the century. The Nineteen century generated one of the most important and innovative architectural movements: Modernism. The comparison between Modernism and feminist movement would be difficult to make. In the international contest, in fact, the names that resound are just the ones of male architects. The point at issue is not the lacking presence of women as architects, but their concealment by the male universe. The architecture was not just for men. We must remember the important role of the Bauhaus movement in those years, that allowed access to women to Dessau school. We’re in the ‘20s of the nineteenth century and these school policies are definitely avant-gardist, in relation to the historical period in which they are set. This is an example of how, even if in a society mainly ruled by men, it’s possible to adopt an open mind, directly connected to the contemporary discussion about gender equality.

Since the avant-gardist approach kept by Bauhaus school, a century is passed. This century has collected innumerable success for the female universe in the architectural contest, showing the progressive affirmation of female architects, who are now known worldwide. These are women who influenced architectural thinking, women who have contributed to progress.

Although in the lasts fifty years the names of female architects on international contest were numerous, we need to wait for 2004 to see a woman name in the highest position of Pritzker Prize list. The prize, considered by many as the “Nobel prize of architecture”, was awarded to Zaha Hadid as the first woman in history. Afterwards it was awarded to Kazuyo Sejima (cofounder of SANAA), Carme Pigem Barceló (cofounder of RCR Architects) and then, in 2020 to Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara (cofounder of Grafton Architects). As world-renowned architects, they represent inspiring figures for a lot of women, being a model for their career and passion.

In conclusion, the world has lately started to adopt an open-minded vision to the female sphere, in a way to accept the value of a person besides its gender qualities. The biggest step has been taken, now it is time to spread this vision to people's mind, to prepare them to accept a world of equalities. Shall no longer the gender define ourselves. Will it be possible by 2030?

veronica strippoli

Building Engineer, Architecture

I’m a PhD Student in Architecture and Construction in the University of Rome "Tor Vergata" and I’m working on an innovative start-up My Home Please! I am graduated in Engineering/Architecture, I attended the University in Rome and I studied one year in the Architecture University CEU in Madrid, as Erasmus student. I fell in love with Spain and I liked the Spanish approach to architecture, so after my graduation I worked in BCQ Architecture in Barcelona.

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