Vrouw in de bouw. De eerste vrouwelijke afgestudeerde architecten in Nederland

Abstract

This article discusses the emergence of the first female architects in the Netherlands and puts it into perspective by comparing it with the emergence of women practitioners in disciplines closely related to architecture, such as furniture and landscape design. Female participation in professions that required higher or university qualifications was far from self-evident in the first half of the twentieth century. This was even truer for technical occupations, which were regarded as a typically male preserve. Thanks to the women’s movement, this gradually started to change. In 1917, Grada Wolffensperger was the first woman to graduate as ‘building engineer’ from Delft Technical University, the only university-level architectural course in the Netherlands at that time. Wolffensperger did not allow public opposition to deter her from opting to become an architect. Following in her wake, eighteen women completed their architecture degree course before 1946. Two female architects gained their diploma at the VHBO (forerunner of today’s Academy of Architecture) in Amsterdam.

Of the 21 female architecture graduates, five (24 per cent) practised for only a short time or not at all. Grada Wolffensperger was for unknown reasons already listed as without occupation not long after graduating. Single women among the sixteen who were practising architects worked in education, for the government or were self-employed. Four women worked with their husband in their own architectural practice. Interestingly, no women were partners in architectural practices owned by third parties.

The female architecture graduates published rarely, if at all. If they aspired to do so, they clearly did not manage to penetrate the all-male editorial offices that dominated professional periodicals. Membership of women’s advocacy groups and professional associations provided those trailblazing female architects with useful networks and contributed to their professionalization.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, women were also turning to disciplines like furniture design and interior, garden and landscape architecture that were closely related to architecture, but in which there was greater public acceptance of female participation. These professions and associated training programmes evolved gradually and the dividing lines between them were not clearly defined. The group of women relevant to this study worked independently, were reasonably successful, and were creative in finding ways of promoting their work.

Margaret Staal-Kropholler (1891–1966), who never graduated as an architect, is nevertheless still regarded as the Netherlands’ first female architect. This acknowledgement is partly due to the body of work she produced and to her publications and lectures. Of those contemporaries who did complete an architectural course, most managed to build a good career. Yet these women did not receive – or may not even have sought – the publicity accorded to Staal-Kropholler. The acknowledgement and respect that they very likely received was not widely reported in the media.