We cannot ignore us
Farzana Hossain
12/17/2019
Imagine a world we have created, a world without women, what would happen? Childbirth would be a myth. Industries would decline, the act of nurturing and loving would become scarce. Human population would most likely decline in one generation. The power of women is much more incredible than we realize. Now imagine we exist to only offer offspring, to nurture, to bring prosperity for men. We exist for others then do we exist at all? For instance, Women have made contributions to the architecture industry for generations. Women did not win the pritzker prize until 2004 CE. Women have been neglected for their work or deprived of being credited for a number of years.
Think of household names that you “must” know in architecture. How many of those are women? So, as with so much of how we come to know what we know, it comes to us through a white male filter, with an agreed-upon hagiography of modernism. Filling out the historical record with a diversity of perspectives enriches our understanding of the development of women’s careers, and the many threads that weave the tapestry of design. However, this understanding of women and their careers is what’s missing from the platform of design because diversity in architecture is missing. This paper aims to question the institutional pedagogy in higher education in Architecture about the lack of diversity and inclusion in its ranks and the systemic inequities that women, students and professors face.
The architecture culture values the ‘creative genius’ who often times present themselves with immerse ego, values the toxicity of studio culture or isn’t afraid to step on their peers to get ahead. There is a great deal of gender bias around the issue of creativity–of course we know that it is hogwash; men and women are equally creative, and there are plenty of studies that show that. However the culture itself continues to hold that backward prejudice. Cultural prejudice, bias, lack of education, economic strength and power dynamics are the few things that prevent women and students of color from succeeding. Let's take Denise Scott Brown for instance, she was not given equal credit for her work in the addition “ Learning from Las Vegas” with Robert Venturi and did not receive a shared Pritzker prize in 1991. Pritzker Prize jury has rejected a petition for architect Denise Scott Brown to retroactively receive recognition for the award that her husband and partner, Robert Venturi, won in 1991. A student group at Harvard Graduate School of Design, set up an online petition in April calling for Scott Brown to be recognized as a joint Pritzker Prize laureate with Venturi, and it was quickly signed by a string of high-profile architects including Zaha Hadid and Farshid Moussavi, and Robert Venturi himself. However, She was still denied a retroactive award as the jury does not consider candidates outside of the time frame.
The first woman to receive a pritzker prize was Zaha Hadid in 2004 after Denise Scott Brown was not given the award she deserved. AIA shows that women and minorities in the United States, two groups underrepresented in architecture, both cite a lack of role models as one of the major reasons the profession remains largely male and white. The women who do labor in these environments such as the workplace or academic institution have had to contend with dismissive or downright hostile behavior. Women lack role models, support from male peers and or often neglected for their work. These could be understood as a few reasons why women are struggling to get ahead.
These behaviors and lack of attention given to women are not so far away from us. Let’s take Milstein Hall for instance, not a piece of architecture but as a space, as a container that contains objects,us. Milstein being a container suggests an open space where students learn but it is also a very unsafe space for students who feel scrutinized at all times. As a space, the scale of Milstein and the scale of a person is very off making one uncomfortable. It is supposed to function as an incubator where you see works of your peers and learn from it. However, it also gives no privacy to students. If we start to analyse the events inside the space in chronological order, Andrea Simitch is a professor who has not only influenced the Cornell Architecture pedagogy, but has fought through many gender based biases. Through her tenure process, she had refused to take advice from her husband Val Warke to prove she can do it by herself. She says “I met Val Warke at Cornell, my now husband and partner – he just has an amazing, brilliant mind, and we really connected. But I never wanted to take any advice, and even though we were contemporaries, I had to feel that he didn’t help me get there. People assumed it all the time, and I had to prove it to myself. Because at the time, there was “the guy” and there was “the girl” thing, and everyone would always assume that the girl was always secondary and just helping out – it’s still true today – so I always made a huge effort to distance myself from advice from him or anyone else for that matter while I was going through the tenure process”. Andrea was not taught by a single female professor. There were no female role models for her to look up to. She had to work tremendously hard to be taken seriously. Although she had the economic ability and a few colleagues supporting her, this is not the case for everyone. It is even harder for colored women and students of color to get resolution despite working extremely hard. There are very few resources at the university that exist for students of color to take advantage of. They have to create opportunities for themselves in order to thrive. Andrea expresses that “ I think for women in that sense, I’ve always had to do three times more work to prove that it was my work - and that has been the biggest challenge but also the biggest driver! I don’t know if I would be where I am today if I didn’t have that determination – to be a distinct voice from that of a partner or colleague or husband.” We must question if our pedagogy as an institution helps women succeed? We must ask ourselves how our learning informs our ability to question misjudgment of gender based issues. The bias that Andrea faced is still present today with young professors and students in Milstein.
A similar phenomenon occurred in transistorizing architectural teaching and synthesizing the ways young professors teach. Dasha Kapolava started teaching at Cornell four years ago along with her husband Peter Ballman. She is a respected professor whose teaching is enjoyed by many students. She recently revealed that “ Requirement of getting a tenure and most of the old faculty didn’t have to go through what we have to go through now. Now it is more about publication, writing a book, building a building or getting published. I don’t think it’s about women not getting those positions but it's because I didn't have as many qualifications as Felix did. Which is why he got the tenure track and I came in second. In school, I was only interested in studio but never occurred to me to write a book or take theory classes. I am not against publications and to write a paper takes a long time that takes away from other times.” The process of getting a book published, building a building requires the access to not only a great education but connection, money, experience and support from others. If women are already deprived of these components from their core education due to bias, how can they succeed? It is also irresponsible of the tenure track jury to assign these requirements without further understanding or making foundational resources needed to be eligible for tenure accessible to everyone. We must address the problem associated with an education that hinders unsuccessful effort to elevate women and makes it even harder to be at the top of design firms in a professional setting.
To understand the discrepancy of women’s architecture career, we also need to acknowledge that there have been some steps taken toward a positive direction. Dasha also mentioned in her statement that working with her husband has helped her grow and she wasn’t scared of society’s biased opinion. She has said “Design is pretty equal and more of a division of labor. We come with projects through talking and some projects he had the initial idea and some I had the idea. In terms of projects, the projects would be what they are if the other person wasn’t there. He really respects me as a designer and there is no tension between us. After a couple of years working together, we got into a lot of fights. It was a lot of bullshit. I was afraid of losing my voice working with a partner. But with time, it has worn away. We are lucky in that sense and we are compatible because of that. There hasn't been negativity and struggle because he's very open and supportive.” We must admit that our perceived views on our culture has shifted towards more informed views on gender bias and women’s rights. When looking at the situation of both Andrea and Dasha in a timeline, we can speculate that society has altered its view on women in the workforce. Andrea felt she needed to prove she was smart, capable and worth her title without any help from her husband. She didn’t want to allude any thoughts on her becoming a tenure professor because of Val Warke. Dasha doesn’t have those fears. Her relationship with her husband and partner Peter is not an obstacle or a threat to her career choices. Although these are few progressive changes that have been made with time, it is because of the extreme dedication and time given by many incredible women. We also cannot forget that these are both White women and many other layers of difficulty arises for women of color when they try to establish similar goals. This is specifically true for students of color and LGBTQ students.
As I was evaluating these issues, it was very important for me to understand the roles of men in these situations. When asked professor Luben Dimcheff about his role in women’s rights, he responded “Already at the time I arrived at Cornell, the female professors were highly regarded and extremely influential and just from my personal experience I had my most successful projects under female professors. I had specifically asked Lily Chi and Andrea Simitch to be my female professors because I knew they would have empathy for me.” When I asked him if he takes women into consideration when he assigns TA’s for his class he said “In terms of assigning TAs I always make sure that people come with design qualification and abundant representation of female teachers. Which I think reflects the student body as well. I think students relate differently to people who are like them.” The role of male professors is very important in the success of an equal society. They make decisions that affect women and they need to make decisions being conscious of the inequalities women face. I am not suggesting we hire women who are not qualified because there are a lot of intelligent women but I propose we at least hire women who are qualified.
When we take a look at Milstein culture, we can start to evaluate how the atmosphere on the plate starts to influence students and their education. Our education is highly dependent on the professor we get. There are many great professors at Cornell but there are also professors we hire without knowing their past behaviors. The department recently hired Jimenez Lai, a professor at UCLA who had allegedly harassed female students in the architecture department there. His name and details have appeared on the “Shitty men of Architecture list” created by Moira Donegan. Donegan created this list because when people in subordinate positions are harassed or experience an abuse of power, a coping strategy is to minimize what happened–to think, ‘I must have misunderstood. It’s probably just me.’ So they don’t say anything. Or they fear retaliation and retribution. The traditional ways of speaking out, like complaining to human resources, have historically failed women. Communication among peers is a mode of survival. What was so powerful about the Shitty Media Men list was that it allowed women the space to say, ‘I’m not the only one who’s had something weird happen to me.’ Maybe it’s easier to come forward as part of a group than as a single person. Donegan said “ The Shitty Architecture Men list describes incidents with various degrees of severity, from “kissing/ grabbing/ hugging women against their will” to “general shittiness.” This list currently cannot be found anymore. This has now become problematic because it is something almost all architecture students know about but can never prove. Another example of shitty Cornell men include Richard Meier. Richard Meier, a notable world renowned architect has sexually harassed multiple women. This news came out the same week he donated millions of dollars to Cornell board of trustees. Cornell had made the decision to give the money back after many student protests. However, there was no effort to make an official statement by the Architecture department that focused on denouncing any sexual harassment behavior. Students had to come forward and hold meetings to talk about how they were feeling about these issues.
When we endorse professors or students for their illegitimate behavior, Cornell as an institution is encouraging these sexual misconduct. Students should not have to be taught by a professor who has been accused of sexual harassment. If we can’t denounce these behaviors at an institutional level, then, it is even harder to gather the courage to speak up against sexual misconduct at a professional setting. For instance, a second year B’arch student has revealed that when she was working in Hong Kong last summer, She was harassed by a middle aged man who happened to be her colleague. He would stare at her and would make inappropriate faces. When she confronted him, he denied any behavior of misconduct and got away with it. She didn’t go to human resources afraid of not being able to get a job in Hong Kong ever again. This is an example of how our education needs to empower us to, our department needs to set an example for us to not let people get away with sexual harassment by not endorsing predators and believing students when they say they have been sexually harassed. I strongly think
administration at Cornell hires architects who are good at designing not necessarily individuals who are good at teaching and understanding students. This is irresponsible of the administration to do so and the consequences of having someone not being able to teach is dealt with by the students that oftentimes result in dissatisfaction.
As a student, a woman of color, I also need to understand that I have power to change these circumstances. Women have the right to stand up against any misjudgment and we need to know that our voices, decision, abilities and contribution matter. Although I do not have a solution to the sexual misconduct in the industry, as a student I have the power to say “no”. Donegan also admits that she doesn’t have specific preventative measures in mind to combat sexual harassment in the professional world, she concludes her open letter with one resounding sentiment: “Make sexual predators afraid. Make it risky to harass someone. Make it scary to harass someone. Make people worried about getting found out. Create actual stakes the same way that women have been balancing the stakes for decades. The balance of power has been with sexual predators for too long”. We need to stand up against mistreatment when it happens to us or our peers, uniting with both women and other men to combat these issues. Like a lot of feminists, I think about how women can build power, help one another, and work toward justice. But it is less common for us to examine the ways we might wield the power we already have. Among the most potent of these powers is the knowledge of our own experiences. The women who used the shitty men list of architecture spreadsheet, and who spread it to others, used this power in a very special way. These movements already show us the power we have because without us, there is no architecture.
As I have expressed the issues regarding Women in architecture, we cannot forget that although it is hard to thrive as a woman, it is equally as hard or even harder to succeed as a student of color, women of color, and LGBTQ students. I had the opportunity to speak to these specific categories of students and Alumni at Cornell about their opinion on the Cornell architecture pedagogy and values. When asked what would you like to see change in the architecture department, a fourth year B’arch female student revealed that “I want Cornell to be more welcoming to women and minority students and really mean it. We can’t say 25% of our class is minority students and call it a day. Show us what type of tools and resources you have at Cornell for these students to succeed when they get here.” When asked a gay male third year B’arch student about the role students play in making these changes, he answered “I need to take responsible and ethical decisions. I don’t think I am in a position to where I have made decisions which deprive people of other gender of success. Cornell is a cloister of Utopian ideals not enacted perfectly because on the one hand we say we are equal but on the other hand I feel like we are not. Cornell needs to understand the costs of an architecture education and the demands of minimal living. I need to speak up for my rights and professors need to listen to them and give me results not comfort. I am fortunate in that I am not participating in a receiving or giving assault anywhere but my female counterparts are. I need to support my peers more when these issues arise.”
There are roles for students to enact change but there is a big role played by the chair, dean and other decision makers in the department. Students have revealed that often times the department fails to listen to students and their concerns. A B’arch male student stated that the act of communication between student and faculty member is highly flawed. He said “Seeking effective channels of communication is flawed for instance, mass protest, theses, title 9 legislation, Preston Thomas lecture seems to be the only way to bring attention to an issue. These resources are not accessible to students of all groups. We don’t need a thesis to raise awareness of sexual assault because they need to listen to us and provide consequences when we say “I have been abused”. It seems like the only way to get things done is by protesting, going to a lecture or through a thesis. Even then , they don’t listen and take action but try to comfort and hide it away. Starting with the role of a dean, the dean should have office hours where students can walk in and talk to them. They need to make themselves more visible. The Dean is in Hartell which is an exhibition space. It is already hidden away and you need to put yourself on display away from the safety of your comfort space to a space you go once at the end of the semester feeling terrified during final reviews. As a dean, they need to do a thorough analysis of the existing condition of the people they are serving. The Dean should reveal what their goals are and their plans to achieve them. They need to make legislative decisions, for instance, towards climate change instead of telling students to use less paper. As for the chair, a greater deal of transparency is needed into the type of work that they do, the qualifications they look at to hire people needs to be more visible. For instance, student representatives should be included in the interview process when new professors and TA’s are hired. An M’arch male student said “The chair cannot be selective about who they serve. This means, they shouldn’t only give all attention to their favorite student. I am paying an equal amount of money to be treated equally.” The chair needs to have conversation with students weekly or monthly about what is necessary in the department and follow through to make those changes happen accordingly. There are lots of degree requirements and all your free time is spent doing work for other classes that are not studio work. A recent graduate said that “ A goal that I have set for myself is to get licensed because women are underrepresented. Maybe the NCARB needs to reevaluate their requirements for getting a license.” When asked what is her role in making these changes happen? She responded “My role is on a daily basis, thinking about how I can make a difference. With the Living Room, a student organized club, we made a very active effort to bring women, people of color, and queer ideas forward. Even if it’s not about gender and sexuality, it is still important because we are extending our feminist movement outside the classroom. We always try to bring someone who has views that the discourse here is missing.” Students are doing everything they can through lectures, theses, clubs and through small conversations in every corner to have their ideas present on campus. It is the responsibility of the educators to listen to those concerns. The role of our educators need to change gears towards the need of students before perfecting we are the number one architecture school image. Our institution needs to cater to students before they reveal to the press about how great we are.
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