ABSTRACT
The field of interiors is complex. Marginalised within critical discourse and historically assigned as female, the study and practice of interiors are often viewed as soft and insubstantial, politely addressing the inhabitation of space without troubling the permanence of architecture. This chapter shows how the discourse and practice of interiors might facilitate a shift in gender relations within the academy and the built environment. To date, the gender debate has focused almost exclusively on the significance of the paucity of women architects in practice, without questioning the way in which interior design inversely mirrors gender inequality. Professionally, interior design remains behind the eight ball, failing to challenge the gender biases within architecture and the construction industry at large, but more significantly unable to deal with the problem on the inside: namely, how to simultaneously redress the gender imbalance while also arguing for a practice and discourse that celebrates its feminine strengths.
