Architects in Skirts: The Public Image of Women Architects in Wilhelmine Germany

This essay explores the public image of women architects in Wilhelmine Germany, examining the tension between cultural conceptions of femininity and the social construction of the architect as a masculine figure. Writings published between 1908 and 1920 concerning women architects are analyzed according to five prominent themes: the architect's body, the negotiation of the building site, the architect's mind and the female brain, the persona of the architect, and the woman architect as mistress of the domestic realm.