ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the experiences of positive 'gate-keeping' for women in architecture in Spain. A set of unlikely circumstances created the conditions for active gender mainstreaming in architectural policies even before gender mainstreaming was enshrined in legislation in 2007. The chapter deals with the author's personal experience, through her roles as executive advisor in the Cabinet of the Minister of Housing and later as Director for Architecture. Certainly, all-male gatherings of any kind in architecture look somehow awkward and old-fashioned today. Many people realize that women need to be included: the presence of women in positions of visibility in Spanish architecture is far more common today than it was only five years ago. The temporary presence in key instances of consecration, those that open doors to the architectural star system, was a threat for those individuals and groups who had historically controlled the field of architecture through mechanisms of homo-social reproduction based on the non-acknowledged control of political stances.
