Architect and Landscape Architect as Defined in the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (54)

"Architect (professional and kindred) 0-03.10. Plans, designs, and oversees construction of buildings, such as private residences, office buildings, theaters, municipal buildings, factories, and similar structures: Consults with clients to determine needs and preferences as to style and plan, furnishes professional advice on such matters as cost, design, materials, equipment, and estimated building time. Plans lay-out of structure, coordinating its structural and ornamental elements into a unified design. Prepares sketches of proposed building to enable client to visualize appearance of completed structure. Writes specifications, and prepares scale drawings and full sized detail drawings for use of building contractors and craftsmen. Oversees operations at building site to insure compliance with plans and specifications. May plan and oversee remodeling or repair of buildings. Ordinarily, required to meet State licensing laws with respect to professional training and experience. Workers concerned chiefly with ornamental development of building sites or other areas of land should be classified as landscape architects."

"Architect, landscape (professional and kindred) 0-03.20 landscape designer. Plans and prepares drawings for ornamental development of an area of land: Studies condition of site, such as drainage, topsoil, trees, rock formations and buildings. Prepares sketches and scale drawings for development, locating roads, footpaths, buildings, bridges, fences, and sewers. Recommends types and location of trees, shrubs, and flowers, harmonizing improvements with existing land features and architectural structures. Prepares specifications and cost estimates. Supervises execution of plan details, including purchase of nursery stock, statuary, and other items. Sometimes specializes in a particular phase of landscape architecture and is designated according to the field of specialization, such as golf-course architect, park architect, city planning architect, or highway architect."

5-XI

THE OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN IN ARCHITECTURE

AND LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

Unlike engineers, half of all architects are engaged in independent practice, and most of them are registered in one or more of the States (46). All but six States have licensing laws for architects, since structures designed by them can endanger the public if they are not properly planned (3). Unless an individual does architectural work for someone else who assumes the responsibility for public safety, he must be registered. These licensing laws also usually prevent those without proper training from calling themselves architects. In New York State, for example, only those who are registered may call themselves "architects." On the other hand, this State, like most of the others, does not have a licensing law for landscape architecture since here safety is not involved.

Architecture is considered by some educators as a better field for women than engineering, which has similar basic qualifications. They say that in architecture, women who marry may practice independently and take on as much or as little work as they wish. In fact, a number of women architects are engaged in practice with their architect husbands (67). It is also claimed that women can make a special contribution in the field of home and apartment-house design. However, most women who are registered architects challenge this view. They assert that part-time work or occasional work is possible in architectural drafting, but the successful practice of architecture requires full-time devotion for success. They also point out that they must be qualified to design all types of structures and that "there are no specialists in architecture." Specialization is not of their choosing, although the public may have preconceived notions which may affect or limit the range of their work.

Landscape architecture, too, has been mentioned often as an appropriate field for women. Landscape architects usually take a distinct course in landscape architecture which may be offered in a school of architecture or fine arts or a school of agriculture. Only a few women have degrees in both architecture and landscape architecture.

Prewar Distribution

In 1940, there were more than 20,000 architects (including landscape architects) employed in the United States, of whom 477 or 2.3 percent were women (43). The largest number of women registered

architects, before the war, were in New York where there were 20 in 1939, and in California where there were 15. Michigan had 6, and Illinois and Pennsylvania each had 5 (23).

Most of the prominent women architects were engaged in independent practice, or were partners in architectural firms (23). There were also some in teaching. A few women trained in landscape architecture were serving as consultants to local or State playground authorities. Some were in private practice and some were teaching. A number of women had written books and articles and had edited publications in architecture and in landscape design.

At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which has admitted women since its opening, more women had been graduated before the war in architecture than in any other technical field. Sixty-four women had received the bachelor's degree, and 7 had received the master's degree in architecture from that institution. Most of them have married and raised families. Three retired after a lifetime of practice in architecture. In 1940, 16 were engaged in active practice; 1 of them specialized in colonial reproductions, another in restaurant design, and 3 were practicing jointly with their husbands. Three were teaching art or architecture, 1 in the landscape field. Three were architectural draftsmen, 1 with her husband's firm. Two were project planners, 1 with a housing authority, the other with a real-estate firm. Two became dress designers, and 2 were writers; 1 became an interior decorator, another, an archaeologist. One was a statistician and another a clerk in an insurance company's actuarial department. Four women had also taken the relatively new major in city planning, and all 4 were married and working, too.

The type of work done by 19 women who were graduated with degrees in architecture or in landscape architecture from Ohio State University from 1912 to the outbreak of World War II also indicates the range of prewar outlets for women architects. Of 3 who received degrees in landscape architecture, 1 was engaged in research with an Ohio firm of landscape architects, 1 was in private practice as a landscape architect and also served part time on a cityplanning board, and the other became a technical librarian. On 5 of the others, all of whom had bachelor of science degrees in architecture, there was no report of occupation, although all were known to be married and were probably engaged full time in homemaking. One was a practicing architect, and 4 others had practiced before their marriage and 1 before her death. Two were employed by architectural firms, 1 of them as a draftsman. One worked for a public utility. Two were in Federal Government service. One of those became a buyer for the United States Treasury Department after working as a set designer

and architect in Hollywood; the other worked as a draftsman with the United States Engineer Corps in the War Department.

Before the war, however, only a few women applied for the occasionally announced Federal civil service examinations for architects. In the fiscal year of 1940, for example, only 2 women passed examinations (as assistant architects) that year, and none was among the 16 persons appointed to probational or permanent positions as architects that year (42).

Annual Addition to the Supply

The profession of architecture grows by the addition of new graduates from architectural schools and of those who qualify by practical experience obtained in an architect's office. The number of these newcomers usually exceeds the annual loss from the profession due to death, retirement, or other causes. Over the years, an increasingly large proportion of the additions has come directly from member schools of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture. However, in 1940, the number of graduates was declining in spite of an increase in the number of schools. Only 378 men and women were graduated in 1939 as compared with 472 in 1936 (39). This may have been due to the fact that over 7 percent of the architects were unemployed in 1940, a rate slightly higher than that for all professional and semiprofessional workers.

On the other hand, the interest of women students in architecture appeared to be increasing before the war. About 21 percent of all resident undergraduate students in architecture in all institutions of higher education in 1939-40, according to the United States Office of Education, were women (62). They numbered 914, almost twice as many as all the women architects employed in 1940. Eighteen women were also enrolled as graduate students in architecture, forming 15 percent of the total graduate group in architecture. Relatively few architects, however, as compared with those in other scientific fields, have higher degrees, since work experience rather than continued academic training has been emphasized in this field.

No separate information on those training in the smaller field of landscape architecture was available.

Wartime Changes

During the war, both enrollments and degrees granted in architecture declined for women as well as for men. Only 223 first degrees in architecture were awarded in 1943-44, according to the United States Office of Education, and only 764 women were enrolled as

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