Women’s access to architectural education in the United States: Tyng as a symbol of a historical process
Submitted: 2025-05-07
|Accepted: 2025-07-23
|Published: 2025-10-31
Copyright (c) 2025 VLC arquitectura. Research Journal
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Downloads
Keywords:
architectural education, female architects, Anne Tyng, Harvard, history of education
Supporting agencies:
Abstract:
How did Anne Tyng manage to study architecture at Harvard in 1942? This question uncovers a complex tapestry of struggles, resistances, and advancements in the history of women’s education in the United States. This article explores Tyng’s admission to the Graduate School of Design not as an isolated event but rather as the culmination of a century-long effort to access educational spaces traditionally dominated by men. It examines three pivotal moments: the progress made in women’s higher education during the nineteenth century, the gradual inclusion of women in architectural programs from 1870 to 1900, and the institutional openings that arose during the Second World War. The systematic exclusion of women from universities like Harvard inspired innovative responses, including the founding of women’s colleges and specialised schools, which paved the way for Tyng and her peers. Four key factors facilitated this transformation: the persistent demonstration of women’s academic capabilities, the establishment of alternative educational networks, the socioeconomic pressures of the war, and the solidarity among generations of women. This historiographical synthesis, aimed at a general audience, provides Spanish-speaking readers with a critical overview compiled from various Anglo-American sources.
References:
Allaback, Sarah. The First American Women Architects. Urban: University of Illinois Press, 2008.
Cigliano Hartman, Jan, editor. The Women Who Changed Architecture. Princeton Architectural Press, 2022.
Anderson, Dorothy M. Women, Design, and the Cambridge School. West Lafayette: PDA Publishers, 1980.
Attridge, Margaret “A History of Women in Higher Education.” 19 March. 2021, https://www.bestcolleges.com/news/analysis/2021/03/21/history-women-higher-education/
Beecher, Catherine E. and Stowe, Harriet B. The American Woman’s Home: or, Principles of Domestic Science; Being a Guide to the Formation and Maintenance of Economical, Healthful, Beautiful, and Christian Homes. New York: J.B. Ford and Company; Boston: H.A. Brown & Co., 1869.
Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation (BWAF). Pioneering Women of American Architecture. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2017.
Brown, Jane. The Lowthorpe School of Landscape Architecture: A History. Groton, MA: Lowthorpe Foundation, 2005.
BWAF. “Pioneering Women of American Architecture.” https://pioneeringwomen.bwaf.org/sophia-gregoria-hayden-bennett/
Carlton, Genevieve. “The History and Impact of Women’s Colleges.” BestColleges, March 3. 2023. https://www.bestcolleges.com/blog/history-womens-colleges/
Center for the Advancement of Women. Examining the Value and Utility of a Women’s College Education in North America. Los Angeles: Mount Saint Mary’s University & Women’s College Coalition, 2020.
Clark, Robert Judson, et al. Design in America: The Cranbrook Vision, 1925-1950. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1983.
CNN. “Harvard Renames Diversity Office As Trump Demands Dismantling of DEI.” Accessed April 29, 2025. https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/29/us/harvard-renames-dei-office-hnk
Doris Cole, From Tipi to Skyscraper: A History of Women in Architecture. Boston: i Press, 1973.
Daniels, Elizabeth A. Bridges to the World: Henry Noble MacCracken and Vassar College. College Avenue Press, 1994.
Droste, Magdalena. Bauhaus: 1919-1933. Cologne: Taschen, 2019.
Fairbanks, A.W. Emma Willard and Her Pupils or Fifty Years of Troy Female Seminary, 1822-1872. New York: Mrs. R. Sage, 1898.
Frost, Henry A., and William R. Sears. Women in Architecture and Landscape Architecture. Smith College, 1928.
Harvard Gazette. “Harvard Won’t Comply with Trump Administration’s Demands.” Harvard Gazette, April 23, 2025. https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2025/04/harvard-wont-comply-with-demands-from-trump-administration/
Harvard Library Archives. “Calendar of Harvard History”. Harvard Library Archives. https://library.harvard.edu/services-tools/calendar-harvard-history
Hayden, Dolores. The Grand Domestic Revolution: A History of Feminist Designs for American Homes, Neighborhoods, and Cities. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1982.
Hightower, Marvin. “This Month in Harvard History.” Harvard Gazette, April 11. 2002, https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2002/04/this-month-in-harvard-history-48-3/
Horowitz, Helen Lefkowitz. Alma Mater: Design and Experience in the Women’s Colleges from Their Nineteenth-Century Beginnings to the 1930s. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1993.
Irwin, R. “Women’s History Month with Emma Willard.” Middlebury Libraries, March 1. 2021, https://www.middlebury.edu/library/news/womens-history-month-emma-willard
Johnson, Joan M. Southern Women at the Seven Sister Colleges: Feminist Values and Social Activism, 1875-1915. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2010.
Nash, Margaret A. “Rethinking Republican Motherhood: Benjamin Rush and the Young Ladies’ Academy of Philadelphia.” Journal of the Early Republic 17, no. 2, 1997. https://doi.org/10.2307/3124445
Nash, Margaret A. Women’s Education in the United States, 1780-1840. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-05035-9
Norris, J.M. “The Development of Technical Education for Women in Nineteenth-Century America: The Case of Vassar College.” Journal of Women’s History 8, no. 2 (1986): 181-199.
Plum, D., and G. Dowell. The Magnificent Enterprise: A Chronicle of Vassar College. Vassar College, 1961.
Pointon, Marcia. Women, Gender and Art. London: Routledge, 1990.
Powers, Jane Bernard. The ‘Girl Question’ in Education: Vocational Education for Young Women in the Progressive Era. London: Falmer Press, 1992.
Rhode Island School of Design. “History and Tradition.” https://www.risd.edu/about/history-and-tradition
Sánchez de Madariaga, Inés. Estudio sobre la situación de las mujeres en la arquitectura en España. Madrid: Consejo Superior de los Colegios de Arquitectos de España, 2022.
Sánchez de Madariaga, Inés. Matilde Ucelay: La primera mujer arquitecta en España. Madrid: Consejo Superior de los Colegios de Arquitectos de España, 2012.
Smith College Archives. Smith College Course Catalogues. Northampton, MA: Smith College Archives, 1875-1885.
Solomon, Barbara Miller. In the Company of Educated Women: A History of Women and Higher Education in America. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985.
Sozanski, Edward J. “School of Design Shows Its History.” The Philadelphia Inquirer, October 13, 1995, F1.
Stanton, Elizabeth C., Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda J. Gage. History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 1: 1848-1861. New York: Fowler & Wells, 1881.
Stow, Sarah D. Locke. History of Mount Holyoke Seminary, South Hadley, Mass.: During Its First Half Century, 1837-1887. South Hadley, MA: Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, 1887.
Stratigakos, Despina. Entrevista con Julia Gamolina. “Breaking the Cycle: Despina Stratigakos on Historical Amnesia, the Magic of Architecture, and Creating Conditions for Change.” Madame Architect, 2019.
Sykes, A. “The History of Gund Hall.” Harvard Graduate School of Design, September 19, 2022. Accessed [27/04/2025]. https://www.gsd.harvard.edu/2022/09/the-history-of-gund-hall/
Torre, Susana, ed. Women in American Architecture: A Historic and Contemporary Perspective. New York: Whitney Library of Design, 1977.
Tournier, Michele. Women’s Education in the United States, 1780-1840. New York: Garland Publishing, 1973.
Tripp, A.F. “Lowthorpe School of Landscape Architecture, Gardening and Horticulture for Women.” Landscape Architecture 3, no. 1. 1912. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44694790
Tyng, Anne G. Louis Kahn to Anne Tyng: The Rome Letters, 1953-1954. New York: Rizzoli, 1997.
Ulrich, Laurel, ed. Yards and Gates: Gender in Harvard and Radcliffe History. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.
Vassar College. Annual Catalogue of the Officers and Students of Vassar College. Poughkeepsie, NY: Vassar College Archives, 1868-1870.
Willard, Emma. A Plan for Improving Female Education. Middlebury, VT: [s.n.], 1819.
Wright, Gwendolyn, “On the Fringe of the Profession: Women in American Architecture.” In The Architect: Chapters in the History of the Profession, ed. Spiro Kostof, 280-308. New York: Oxford University Press, 1977.
Woody, Thomas. A History of Women’s Education in the United States. 2 vols. Lancaster, PA: Science Press, 1929.
