Hard Hats and Aprons: Pioneering Female Architects Portrayed by the Press in Puerto Rico

Abstract This paper relates to the practice of architecture by women in Puerto Rico and their efforts to make themselves visible as professionals. It makes a critical analysis of newspaper articles featuring female architects published on the Island between 1945 and 1980, and argues that society was both fascinated and intimidated by these professionals. By analysing the articles and their photographic illustrations, this paper brings to light the way in which visual images were manipulated to construct, in line with prevalent gender norms, the identity of the professional woman in the field of architecture. It contends that the traditional role assigned to women as caretakers was woven into the practice and concludes that even though the press gave these professionals a place in the spotlight, it also hindered their efforts to make a place for themselves in the profession. Notes Roland Barthes, Mythologies, trans. Annette Lavers, New York: Hill and Wang, 1972, 110. Juan Maldonado (ed.), “Gertie Yolanda Besosa, la Primera Portorriqueña Graduada de Arquitectura, Ejerce aquí su Profesión”, El Mundo (8 July 1945), 5. Annmarie Adams and Peta Tancred, Designing Women: Gender and the Architectural Profession, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2000. Despina Stratigakos, “Architects in Skirts: The Public Image of Women Architects in Wilhelmine Germany”, Journal of Architectural Education, 55, no. 2 (2001), 90–100. Karen Ross, Gendered Media: Women, Men and Identity Politics, Plymouth: Rowman & Littlefield, 2010, 118. Peter Burke, Eyewitnessing: The Uses of Images as Historical Evidence, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2001, 94. The subjects interviewed for this work were selected only if they had practised architecture in PR sometime between 1945 and 1980, which is the time frame of the investigation. Information about them was found on the 2005 list of registered architects of the CAAPPR (Colegio de Arquitectos y Arquitectos Paisajistas de Puerto Rico). The majority of the female architects interviewed were practising architects, but there were also included three retired professionals, a couple of administrators, a preservationist and three university professors. The male subjects interviewed included a dean (at the time of the interview), a couple of university professors and a member of the board of the CAAPPR (during the time frame of the investigation). María de F. Barceló Miller, “Estrenando Togas: La Profesionalización de la Mujer en Puerto Rico, 1900–30”, Revista ICPR, no. 99 (1992), 58. Adams and Tancred, Designing Women, 38. Quote by MacKinnon, in Allen Kanner, “Femininity and Masculinity: Their Relationship to Creativity in Male Architects and Their Independence from Each Other”, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 44, no. 5 (October 1976), 802–805. Bridget Fowler and Fiona M. Wilson, “Women Architects and Their Discontents”, Sociology, 38, no. 1 (February 2004), 105. “Special Report: Women and Work”, The Economist, 401, no. 8761 (26 November–2 December 2011), 6. Anne Spencer and David Podmore (eds), In a Man's World: Essays on Women in Male-dominated Professions, London: Tavistock Publications, 1987, 2. Ross, Gendered Media, 98. Barthes, Mythologies, 50–52. Barthes, Mythologies, 50–52. Take on the analysis by Barthes of an article in the French magazine, Elle. Maldonado, “Gertie Yolanda Besosa”, 5. The relevant passage in the original reads: “Hay muchas personas que creen que cuando una muchacha estudia una profesión, va a dedicar su vida a esta profesión. Cuando me case, mi marido y mi hogar serán primero que la profesión que he estudiado y por la cual siento amor. Creo que en mi propio hogar podría continuar trabajando, haciendo planos para nuevas construcciones. Pero insisto que antes que la profesión vendría mi esposo y mi hogar”. Fowler and Wilson, “Women Architects and Their Discontents”, 102. Fowler and Wilson, “Women Architects and Their Discontents”, 109. Barthes, Mythologies, 50–52. Barthes, Mythologies, 50–52. At the time, architects did not have an independent organisation, but, instead, were regulated under the College of Engineers of PR (CIPR). They fought for an autonomous practice, obtaining it in 1978. Meanwhile, they formed a chapter of the AIA as a symbolic, rather than professional, entity since the practice was regulated by the government through the CIPR and not the AIA. “Ágape en Honor de Tres Arquitectas”, El Mundo (9 April 1964), [page unavailable]. “Esposas Arquitectos Se Reúnen”, El Mundo (5 September 1970), 2-B. Information gathered through the interviews with architects;both male and female architects agreed on this point. “14 Chicas en Primera Clase de Arquitectura en PR”, El Mundo (20 August 1966), Home section, 17. Information gathered through the interviews with architects. Adams and Tancred, Designing Women, 38. Interview with architect Laura Cordero Agrait, Santurce, PR (23 January 2007). Fowler and Wilson, “Women Architects and Their Discontents”, 107. Barceló Miller, “Estrenando Togas”, 66. Fowler and Wilson, “Women Architects and Their Discontents”, 109. John Beynon, Masculinities and Culture, Buckingham: Open University Press, 2000, 138. “Special Report”, The Economist, 6. “Inspeccionan Futuro Depósito Moneda Federal”, El Mundo (11 September 1970), [page unavailable]. Adams and Tancred, Designing Women, 38. “Exposición de Arquitectura; Mujeres Arquitectos de Puerto Rico”, Journal of the CIAA, (October 1975), 6–47. The quote reads: “…se intentó basicamente, y creo que en Buena medida se ha logrado, crear conciencia en la mujer del universo de la capacidad y dotes que posee y la necesidad que el mundo tiene de que esto se adicione a su deber primordial como base principalísima de la célula, que es la familia … Estas profesionales cumplen cabalmente su función dentro de la sociedad puertorriqueña como parte de la institución de la familia”. María Arrillaga, “La Crítica Literaria Feminista”, Homines, 20, no. 2 (2000), 340. “Architects Liken Their Career to Medicine”, The San Juan Star (3 August 1975), 19. Fowler and Wilson, “Women Architects and Their Discontents”, 102. “Architecture: A Marriage of Art and Science”, The San Juan Star (3 August 1975), 19. Maritza Maymí Hernández, “La Definición del Trabajo a Través de las Identidades y la Construcción de Identidates en el Trabajo Asalariado”, Historia y Sociedad, XIV, (2003), 134. Fowler and Wilson, “Women Architects and Their Discontents”, 104. R. W. Connell, Masculinities, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1995, 111. Connell, Masculinities, 111. Connell, Masculinities, 108. Fowler and Wilson, “Women Architects and Their Discontents”, 116. Jennifer Binns, “Leadership and the Invisibility of Gender”, in Patricia Lewis and Ruth Simpson (eds), Revealing and Concealing Gender: Issues of Visibility in Organizations, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010, 164. “Nuevas Facilidades UI Costarán $13.8 Millones”, El Mundo (7 April 1979), 5-D. “Nuevas Facilidades UI Costarán $13.8 Millones”, El Nuevo Día, C-10. Fowler and Wilson, “Women Architects and Their Discontents”, 107. Caroline Gatrell, “Pregnancy Centre Stage, Please: Contesting the Erasure of Pregnant Bodies from Workplace Space”, in Lewis and Simpson (eds), Revealing and Concealing Gender, 57. “Special Report”, The Economist, 4. Jacqueline Watt, “‘Now You See Me, Now You Don't’: The Visibility Paradox for Women in a Male-Dominated Profession”, in Lewis and Simpson (eds), Revealing and Concealing Gender, 176. Lewis and Simpson (eds), Revealing and Concealing Gender, 16.

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