There are professions such as architecture where, despite all what women have achieved, a male hegemony persists and is not very permeable to gender revolutions. This exploratory project aims to identify and describe the struggle of women architects in Portuguese-speaking Africa for career recognition and representation as a consequence of the inequalities inherited from the colonial past. Unanswered research questions have been raised: Who were the women architects working in the former Portuguese colonial territories in Africa? What was their ethnic origin? What was their professional and educational background? What were their struggles for professional recognition? With the independence of these new countries, what roles did these women arch assume? The project seeks to fill a gap in the history of the African countries colonized by the Portuguese – Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, S. Tomé and Príncipe, Angola, and Mozambique – by approaching the condition of the precursor women architects understood as the first professionals to work in these territories. The offer of work during colonial rule was limited to the Colonial Public Works (CPW) and family offices. The transition to independence would bring novelties, such as cooperation programs and the reform of public services. The research will consider these changes in the profession and architectural culture, questioning how women survived and emerged in conditions of extreme labour vulnerability, however sometimes imposing themselves by the lack of technicians. The project will note 2 historical periods: 1953-1974, defined by late colonialism (from the arrival of the first woman architect in Africa, until the African independence); 1975-1985, characterized as the post-independence period (starting from the government transition, until the first woman graduated from the first architecture course at the Agostinho Neto University, Angola). Different types of careers will be addressed in this chronological plot: self-employed architects; technicians working for the Public Works departments; coopérants. The project foresees 3 segments: 1) analysis from the perspective of archival and documental treatment; 2) identification of educational and professional paths from the perspective of gender studies in Architecture; 3) historiographical description for a theoretical framework. In the 1st, 3 demographic profiles are considered in the categorization of the graduated technicians working in the Portuguese colonies: European ethnicity; African-born European ethnicity; African ethnicity. In the 2nd, a targeted analysis will be conducted on the educational and professional paths of the group of women considered for the survey. The only 2 institutions that trained female architects in Portugal – the Fine Arts Schools of Lisbon and its namesake in Porto – will be analysed and described based on their syllabuses, final graduation projects and teaching pedagogies. In the 3rd, these women’s performance in training and in profession will be analysed and described within the methodologies of the History of Architecture. Attention will be paid to the theoretical framework provided by the current state of the art on gender, race and subaltern studies. The analysis of the 5 countries, by benefiting from a comparative perspective, will enable the framing of the role of these women architects in different cultural, economic and social contexts. Research methods will combine archival survey with interviews and visits to the works designed by the women appointed as case studies. Among the archives to be consulted are the Overseas Historical Archive (AHU) with its extensive documentation on CPW; and the archives of the architecture faculties in Portugal, which inherited the collections of the former Schools of Fine Arts. External institutions – as Luanda Institute of Planning and Urban Management (IPGUL) – guarantee support to the local surveys and fieldwork. The information collected about the professional work of these women, training, curricula, designs, and ability to influence the local culture will be considered. Based on this data, it will be possible to construct a History of African Architecture that integrates women. The impact of this research is also reflected in the current conditions under which women architects are trained in Portuguese-speaking African countries, where they continue to be fewer in number and have less professional representation. The team is composed of 4 Portuguese, 1 Angolan, 1 Mozambican, and 1 Italian researcher specialized in Guinean architecture. All members have a background in Architecture and Architectural History. The researchers will be assisted by the consultants: gender and feminism in the international context (Mary McLeod); gender studies in the national context applied to architecture (Patrícia Pedrosa); archives of Portuguese CPW (Ana Canas). The critical postcolonial analysis will enable cross readings with the ongoing research by the African scientific community, guaranteed by the African researchers that make up the team. The results will be debated through different media, highlighting the organization of an International Symposium.

No records found.

No records found.

No records found.

No records found.

With the objective to increase the research activity directed towards the achievement of the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, the possibility of associating scientific projects with the Sustainable Development Goals is now available in Ciência_Iscte. These are the Sustainable Development Goals identified for this project. For more detailed information on the Sustainable Development Goals, click here.