Claiming Domestic Space: Queensland's Interwar Women

This may be the author’s version of a work that was submitted/accepted for publication in the following source: Volz, Kirsty (2017) Claiming domestic space: Queensland’s interwar women architects and their labour saving devices. Lilith: a Feminist History Journal, 2017(23), pp. 105-117. This file was downloaded from: https://eprints.qut.edu.au/114447/ c Australian Women’s History Network This work is covered by copyright. Unless the document is being made available under a Creative Commons Licence, you must assume that re-use is limited to personal use and that permission from the copyright owner must be obtained for all other uses. If the document is available under a Creative Commons License (or other specified license) then refer to the Licence for details of permitted re-use. It is a condition of access that users recog- nise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. If you believe that this work infringes copyright please provide details by email to [email protected] Notice: Please note that this document may not be the Version of Record (i.e. published version) of the work. Author manuscript versions (as Sub- mitted for peer review or as Accepted for publication after peer review) can be identified by an absence of publisher branding and/or typeset appear- ance. If there is any doubt, please refer to the published source. http:// search.informit.com.au/ documentSummary;dn= 042103273078994;res=IELHSS Claiming Domestic Space: Queensland’s interwar women architects and their labour saving devices Abstract The interwar period was a significant era for the entry of women into the profession of architecture. This emergence of women architects coincided with an increasing number of public discussions that considered how domestic architecture could be improved to enhance the efficiency of domestic work. Numerous commentators in Australian newspapers and journals proposed that the only way to achieve optimal conditions in housing was to encourage more women to become architects. It was argued that women were naturally skilled at domestic work and therefore understood these work processes better than male architects. This article argues that Queensland was progressive in its acceptance of women into the profession of architecture. Through a desire for a better standard of housing in a hot and humid climate, women created their own niche within the male dominated profession of architecture in which to improve the built environment. This was architecture by women that sought to improve the day‐to‐day lives of Queensland women through the employment of labour saving devices. Introduction From the mid to late 19th century there were a number of women’s movements in western countries that concentrated on improving the lives of women by developing new models for housing that provided more efficient means of performing domestic work. These advancements of domestic architecture have previously been documented in America, by Dolores Hayden and in the United Kingdom by Mark Llewellyn.1 In 1 Work on this movement has been documented by Dolores Hayden, The grand domestic revolution: A history of feminist designs for American homes, neighborhoods, and cities (MIT Press, 1982). And in the United Kingdom by Mark Llewellyn. ‘Designed by women and designing Hayden and Llewellyn’s work they discuss how women were applying principles of Taylorism to the domestic sphere of work, but at the same time they were developed to emancipate women from the ‘round the clock’ hard labour of child care and domestic duties. This same position on developing houses with efficient methods for completing work at the core of domestic planning was also occurring in Australia, although very little has been written about this. Jennifer Craik wrote in her 1990 article, The Cultural Politics of the Queensland House, ‘Efficiency was, of course, the outcome of the application of Taylorist principles to domestic practices.’2 In Australia the same desire for better housing was represented in a number of articles written by women published in Australian newspapers and journals arguing for more women to become architects as a means of developing efficient house planning via labour saving devices. This paper will focus on Queensland, and specifically, how the state’s interwar women architects responded to the call for labour saving devices in houses. The first few articles that expressed the need for better housing and for women to become architects to solve the problems of Australian housing appeared in Queensland newspapers in the late 19th Century.3 This demand was instigated in tropical regions due to concerns around the additional strain of performing labour intensive domestic work in hot and humid climates.4 Queensland is also the focus of this paper as it is an important state in establishment of women to the profession of architecture. The women: gender, planning and the geographies of the kitchen in Britain 1917‐1946.’ Cultural geographies 11, no. 1 (2004): 42‐60. 2 Jennifer Craik, ‘The cultural politics of the Queensland house.’ Continuum 3, no. 1 (1990): 188‐213. 3 Julie Willis also identified the first article of its kind in her paper, Willis, Julie. ‘Aptitude and Capacity: Published Views of the Australian Woman Architect.’ Architectural Theory Review 17, no. 2‐3 (2012): 317‐330. 4 Although there were no publications from the late 19th century that expressly talk about this, Raphael Cilento talks about failed attempts to populate tropical North Queensland and how the climate was especially difficult for women in Cilento, Raphael W. ‘The white man in the tropics.’ Service Publication 7 (1925) and conversations at town planning conferences including, Alexander Wilson, ‘Domestic Architecture for Tropical and Sub‐Tropical Australia’ in Second Australian Town Planning Conference and Exhibition 1918 Queensland Institute of Architects was the first in Australia to accept a membership application from a woman, Beatrice Hutton in 1916.5 Following the work of Dolores Hayden, Queensland’s interwar women architects were, arguably material feminists. Hayden described material feminists as those who maintained that, ‘women must control the socialisation of domestic work and childcare, attacked traditional conceptions of woman’s sphere economically, architecturally, and socially.’6 That is, they worked towards social change to subvert the status quo and this social change was enacted through architecture. In particular these architects were designing houses that prioritised labour saving devices in order to liberate women from the work associated with the house, freeing women to pursue interests outside of the home. As Jennifer Craik described, the presence of women in public life went hand in hand with changes in domestic life, especially with the increasing ease of work associated with the home. Craik wrote that, ‘while women's power in the home has declined in the shift from the role of manager to caretaker to servicer, this has occurred in a context in which women have been developing more active roles in non‐domestic life.’7 In the article that follows an overview of the newspaper articles in Queensland that called for more women to join the profession of architecture will be described. There will also be an overview of the women who sustained careers over a number of years and those who have been captured in the work of Donald Watson and Judith MacKay in their book A Directory of Queensland Architects to 1940.8 Information has also been gathered from the Queensland State Archives, journal and newspaper articles, along 5 Judith MacKay, ‘Designing women: pioneer architects.’ Journal of the Royal Historical Society of Queensland 20, no. 5 (2008): 169. 6 Delores Hayden, The grand domestic revolution: A history of feminist designs for American homes, neighborhoods, and cities 7 Jennifer Craik, ‘The cultural politics of the Queensland house.’ 8 Donald Watson and Judith McKay, A directory of Queensland architects to 1940 (The University of Queensland Library Press, 1984). with other primary resources. This article will not provide and an exhaustive list, there is still much research that needs to be completed and undoubtedly through this process more women would be identified. Ultimately, the article finds that Queensland was a progressive state in welcoming women to the male dominated profession of architecture. Queensland women were vocal in requesting better standards of housing to reduce labour intensive domestic work in the hot and humid tropics and subtropics and expressed the need for more women architects, who they felt would be better equipped to design suitable housing. Queensland’s early women architects responded to this and claimed professional territory by professing their abilities to design more efficient housing through labour saving devices. A Positive Domestic Revolution The call for women to engage in the profession of architecture in Australia came from various voices, but mostly from women who were not architects themselves. This was premised by the assumption that women were better equipped to design well functioning houses. These views were published in popular newspapers and magazines. The value of women in domestic architecture was first mentioned in an article titled The House in the Queensland Figaro in 18889, some 20 years before Australia would see its first female architect. In the article the author writes: ‘I am glad to see that it is proposed in London that there should be lady architects, as there are already lady house‐decorators for let us hope, if a few of these reach Queensland, they will give an impetus to their male competitors by planning something more satisfactory than the domiciles we have at present.’10 9 Julie Willis also identifies this as the first article of its kind in her paper, Willis, Julie. ‘Aptitude and Capacity: Published Views of the Australian Woman Architect.’ Architectural Theory Review 17, no. 2‐3 (2012): 317‐330. 10 ‘The House,’ Queensland Figaro and Punch, 28 January 1888, 5&147 This article was the first of its kind to be found in an Australian newspaper.11 The article went on to say that: ‘There is little doubt that is Mrs.

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