Breaking Glass Ceilings: Early Women in Traditionally Male Professions
This gallery highlights the achievements of a few pioneering women professionals in our collections. These particular women entered their respective careers at a time when women enjoyed limited access to higher education and professional opportunities. Women in historically marginalized groups (including LGBTQ communities, rural communities, and communities of color) faced additional challenges beyond gender barriers. The women we've profiled here overcame several obstacles to establish themselves as accomplished professionals in fields traditionally dominated by men. In some cases, they even invented their own discipline!
Coade's Lithodipyra or Artificial Manufactory Trade Card, probably printed about 1784.
The Coade stone business was started by Eleanor Coade in 1769 and operated into the 1833, later run by a business partner after Coade's death. The trade card was designed by John Bacon, R. A., who was supervisor of Mrs. Coade's factory and who modeled many of the company's figures. The illustration on the card shows the design executed in stone above the door of the company's showroom, and is composed of mythological figures.
The Dietary Computer. Explanatory Pamphlet; the Pamphlet Containing Tables of Food Composition, Lists of Prices, Weights, and Measures, Selected Recipes for the Slips, Directions for Using the Same
This groundbreaking text was written by Ellen H. Richards and published in 1902. Richards was the first women to attend MIT, graduating in 1873. She later became the first female instructor there in 1884. Richards was a pioneer in integrating chemistry into domestic science and was instrumental in laying the groundwork for the field of home economics.
Exhibit postcard, "More than the sum of our body parts" exhibit, Chicago, June 1993.
CARY, Chicks in Architecture Refuse to Yield (to Atavistic Thinking in Design and Society), was founded in 1992 as an offshoot of Chicago Women in Architecture by Chicago architects Carol Crandall, Kay Janis, and Sally Levine. The group designed and produced an exhibit called "More Than the Sum of Our Body Parts" that was shown at the Randolph Street Gallery in Chicago from June 16 to July 2, 1993. The purpose of the installation was to viscerally illustrate the systemic discrimination experienced by women architects.
Photograph of Marjorie Rhodes Townsend receiving the Knight of the Italian Republic Order award in October 1972 for her contributions to the Italian space program.
The first woman graduate of George Washington University's engineering program, Townsend worked with the Naval Research Laboratory from 1951-1959 and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Goddard Space Flight Center from 1959-1980. A pioneer in sonar research, satellite launch technology, and advanced mission planning, Townsend was project manager for three Small Astronomy Satellite launches (1966-75) and the Applications Explorer Missions (1975-76). She received a patent for a digital telemetry system that was aboard the NIMBUS satellite.
Floor plan, bird's eye view and perspective drawings of the Susume Abe residence completed in 1967 by Kimiko Suzuki.
Kimiko Suzuki (1929-1992) was the first housing studies graduate of Japan Women’s University. Following graduation, Suzuki chose to work for a publishing company (instead of an architecture office) that promised her a comparable salary to her male colleagues. After marriage, Suzukie found work in an architecture firm, where she continued to juggle her career and traditional responsibilities at home. When obligations to care for her husband's sick parents forced Suzuki to resign from the firm, she opened a practice out of her home to work on residential, healthcare, and educational design projects.
Travel sketch produced by Sigrid Rupp on an architectural study trip in Guanejuato, Mexico, November 15, 1988.
Sigrid Lorenzen Rupp was a German-born architect who practiced in Palo Alto, California from 1971-1998. born January 3, 1943, in Bremerhaven, Germany. An ardent champion for women’s rights, Rupp stated that she became involved in women’s issues “…simply because I did not want there to be any [women's issues]. It seemed that the time for gender differences should be long over." She was a mentor to many women and minorities in the course of her practice encouraging and facilitating their entry into architecture.
After retiring from architectural practice, Rupp became a prolific painter and traveler. Her watercolors primarily focused on California bay area landscapes and were featured in several local juried shows. She traveled extensively to Central America, South America, Europe, and Asia, documenting her experiences in beautifully illustrated and annotated travel diaries.
Fashion sketch produced by Judith (Dita) Roque-Gourary for a school assignment as a student at the Ecole Nationale Superieure d'Architecture et des Arts Decoratifs de Belgique.
Judith (Dita) Roque-Gourary was born July 26, 1915 in St. Petersburg, Russia. Roque-Gourary practiced architecture in Belgium for the majority of her career, having experienced the Soviet Revolution in 1917, the Nazi occupation of Austria in 1938, and the occupation of Belgium from 1941-1945. Roque-Gourary specialized in remodeling and modernizing 19th and 20th century residences during the reconstruction period. In 1978, Roque-Gourary created the Union of Women Architects in Belgium and acted as president until 1983. She was an outspoken advocate for women in the profession and a noted speaker for the International Union of Women Architects (UIFA). She continued to promote the work of women in architecture until her retirement in 1984.