ABSTRACT

Ideological Equals: Women Architects in Socialist Europe 1945-1989 presents an alternative narrative of women in architecture. A topic often considered from the perspective of difference, this edited collection conversely focuses on the woman architect in a position of equality with their male counterparts. The book looks at nations in Eastern Europe under Socialism where, between 1945 and 1989, a contrasting vision of gender relations was propagated in response to the need for engineers and architects. It includes contributions from established and emerging academics in the fields of 20th century history, art history, and architectural history in Central and Eastern Europe exploring the political, economic and social mechanisms which either encouraged or limited the rise of the woman architect. Investigating the inherent contradictions of Socialist gender ideology and practice, this illustrated volume examines the individuals in different contexts; the building types the women produced; the books and theory they were able to write; their contacts to international organizations; and their representation on both sides of the Iron Curtain.

chapter |4 pages

Introduction

part 1|100 pages

Case studies

chapter 1|13 pages

Between state socialist emancipation and professional desire

Women architects in the German Democratic Republic, 1949−1990

chapter 3|14 pages

At the forefront of socialist development

Women in Hungarian industrial architecture, 1945–1970

chapter 4|15 pages

Emancipated but still accompanied

The first generation of women architects in Slovakia

chapter 6|13 pages

The drawing board au féminin

Women architects in Communist Romania

chapter 7|14 pages

Women architects of Soviet Estonia

Four approaches to design in a rural context

part 2|50 pages

Individuals in context

chapter 8|16 pages

Gender and return migration

Karola Bloch and the development of standard childcare typologies in the German Democratic Republic, 1949–1961

chapter 9|16 pages

Performing equality

The exceptional story of Mimoza Nestorova-Tomić in the post-1963 earthquake reconstruction of Skopje

chapter 10|16 pages

The (in)Famous Anca Petrescu

Authorship and authority in Romanian Communist architecture, 1977–1989

part 3|31 pages

Exchange and publicity

chapter 11|15 pages

Hungarian women architects in the UIFA

The ambiguities of woman's professional internationalism

chapter 13|4 pages

Afterword