The term “man-made world” is often used for the world where we all live. This is beyond just a catchy phrase—it is our reality. We live in a world that has quite literally been created by men. Architecture isn’t just about putting up structures; it’s about the people who inhabit those structures and the experiences they have inside them. While all genders live, work, and exist in these spaces, it’s mostly men who have designed them. That raises a serious question: if the spaces we move through were mainly designed by men, are they really for everyone? Patriarchy in architecture needs to be examined and addressed in contemporary times.
Architecture has never been neutral. It often reflects and sustains already existing social structures and divisions, whether we notice it or not. Virginia Woolf, in her influential essay “A Room of One’s Own,” argued that the absence of a dedicated personal space for women historically played a key role in highlighting women’s marginalisation from literary circles. According to her, if you want to write fiction, you need two things: money and a room of your own. Men, for centuries, had access to both. Women didn’t. Woolf’s point wasn’t just about literature; it was about space—who has it, and who controls it—determines opportunity. When you think about it, spatial design can either empower or restrict. And for a long time, women were systematically denied that empowerment.
Even today, women’s needs are often an afterthought when it comes to design. In his TED Talk “How Architecture Can Create Dignity for All”, Architect John Cary points out a simple but telling example: the long queues outside women’s bathrooms. This isn’t about biology; it’s about design. Most public spaces are created with men as the “default user,” leading to experiences where women are left waiting, uncomfortable, or even unsafe. Instead of asking, “What’s wrong with women?” when they feel out of place, maybe we should be asking, “What’s wrong with the design?”
Architecture has traditionally been a white, male, elite profession, often disconnected from the everyday needs of diverse communities. For decades, the focus was mainly on aesthetics and grandeur rather than thinking about the people who would live in, work in, or move through these buildings. And when you have such a narrow slice of humanity making decisions for everyone, naturally, the outcomes are skewed. This can be observed in the average height of supermarket shelves, which are often taller than the average height of women, making it inaccessible for women. They must rely on someone else’s assistance to access the top shelf, making them dependent even for daily tasks like shopping. The same is true for the height of overhead luggage carriers in trains and planes.
A clear example of how women have been sidelined in architecture is the case of Denise Scott Brown. Brown served as an associate professor at Berkeley and California before she married Robert Venturi in 1967. She was an established architect, had a good academic record, and was widely respected by her colleagues and students. However, things started to change when she married Venturi. She was now an architect’s wife! She recounts in her 1989 essay, “Room at the Top? Sexism and the Star System in Architecture,” how she was deliberately left out of professional dinners under the pretence that “wives” weren’t being invited. However, what was even more disappointing was that, despite being a co-architect alongside her husband, Robert Venturi, and contributing equally (if not more) to their projects, she was snubbed when Venturi received the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1991. Brown’s contributions were overlooked simply because of her gender. It wasn’t until much later, after public pressure, that the architecture world began acknowledging the injustice, and even then, no retroactive award was given.
Spaces are political. Cities, parks, homes—they aren’t just neutral backdrops. They either include or exclude. Urban planning often highlights these issues, too. In cities around the world, parks and public transportation systems have been criticized for being unsafe for women. Leslie Kern’s book “Feminist City: Claiming Space in a Man-Made World” dives deep into how urban spaces often prioritize male experiences while sidelining women’s needs for visibility, safety, and accessibility. Leslie reflects on what an ideal city should look like for working women. She points out how in our urban design, there is little consideration for women as mothers, workers, or caregivers. They lack a transit system that accommodates mothers with strollers on a school run. Our public places often lack enough toilets for women. She also criticizes how so much less attention has been given to pavements and lighting at roads, which directly relate to the harassment women face on the street. Leslie advocates for more inclusive, sustainable, and women-friendly cities.
And the problem isn’t just about access; it’s about recognition and leadership, too. According to the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Membership Demographics Report, only about 17% of partners at major architecture firms are women. This is even though women now make up nearly half of architecture school graduates. There’s a clear disconnect between education and leadership. Structural barriers, bias in hiring and promotions, and the glorification of male “genius” continue to keep women from top roles.
And when we talk about patriarchy, it’s also important to talk about intersectionality — the way race, class, and gender combine to create layers of exclusion. Norma Merrick Sklarek, one of the first African American women to become a licensed architect in the U.S., had to co-found her firm just to find opportunities that the mainstream architecture world denied her. She was rejected by 19 firms after graduating from Columbia. She gave an interview to a local newspaper in 2004 in which she explained that firms weren’t hiring women or African Americans, both prejudices that worked against her. She was a black licensed architect, but she was given meagre tasks such as designing bathroom layouts in the new firm. Eventually, she co-founded her firm. Her story shows that for women of colour, the barriers are even higher.
The good news is that change, however slow, is happening. More women are entering the field, pushing for designs that consider a broader range of human experiences. Movements advocating for gender-sensitive design are gaining momentum. Initiatives like The “Missing 32% Project” are highlighting the gender disparities in architecture and working toward equity. But real transformation means not just including women in the profession, it means questioning the very foundations of how we think about space, design, and inclusion.
After all, who we design for shapes the kind of world we live in.
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The views and opinions expressed in this article/paper are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Paradigm Shift.
The writer is a junior year student currently pursing bachelors in Public Administration from National University of Sciences and Technology. She writes on issues related to Social policies, geo-politics and public policy.