“Women at the Reiff” – Female Perspectives in University Research

“We need more female role models in architecture.” The students at the Reiff Museum, which has always been home to the Faculty of Architecture at RWTH Aachen University, all agree: They want to learn more about those women who were successful in the past and those who are successful today in this profession. Le Corbusier and those like him are not really sufficient any more, given that the student body has now consistently been over 50 percent women for nearly 20 years. Merely adding a few famous female architects to the canon is not enough.

If you delve into the topic in more detail, you inevitably dive into your own faculty’s history. You will also find that of the topic of “women at German universities” does need to be historically reappraised. Given the current debates about the attractiveness of non-professorial positions in academia (#IchBinHanna), you cannot ignore the structural conditions that shape the university system in terms of its measures to promote and support women.

Scientific discussion on the topic “Women at the Reiff”

There are definitely important women architects from the 20th century, but we tend not to teach people about them. Likewise, it must also be the duty of the curriculum to specifically train female architects to be capable businesswomen and not just good designers, so that the ratio of male- and female-led offices is finally balanced out as well. Only by doing this will we be able to make the working environment more adapted to contemporary life.” [Student of the Faculty of Architecture]

This task has been taken on by the art history department of the University over the past two semesters. For good reason: After all, it was an art historian, namely Prof. Dr. Eleanor von Erdberg-Consten, who became the first female full professor at the faculty in 1961. She occupied a field that at the time still seemed exotic, teaching topics in the history of Asian art and architecture. Though certainly the most prominent, she is far from the only woman in the early days of the faculty's female history.

A group of students led by Frederike Eyhoff and Birgit Schillak-Hammers devoted two semesters to women at the Faculty of Architecture. They did this with the explicit intention of making female perspectives visible at Reiff. In the first semester, they explored both the history of women at Reiff and the situation of current female employees. The work of female students, academic staff, employees in technology and administration as well as female professors was examined from a structural, content-related and methodological point of view. Embedded in an overarching academic-feminist discourse, these studies have highlighted the specific hurdles in terms of both women's academic careers and, equally, the successes to date and the issues in gender equality work that still need to be addressed.

As a conclusion of the second semester, the results of this first scientific examination of the topic “Women at the Reiff” were presented to the public in an exhibition that was curated by the students themselves. From December 15 to December 21, 2022, the results of numerous intensive interviews with female students, prospective and established scholars and professors in the Department of Architecture were on display alongside extensive statistical data and exemplary resumes of “Reiff women.”

The project was rounded off artistically by the work of the photographer Ivo Mayr, who at the request of the seminar participants helped to make the women at Reiff more visible. All the women currently employed and studying at Reiff and those people who would like to be viewed as women were invited to have their picture taken. The result is displayed in a documentary, non-judgmental manner. United in a larger-than-life photo wall, they took up the window front of the Reiff foyer. The project deliberately had two viewable sides: this was to make the female face of the architecture faculty visible both within Reiff and to the outside world.

The panel discussion on the opening evening was both the prelude and the highlight of the exhibition. Lecture Hall R5 is steeped in tradition, and it was there that the topic of “Women in Science” was discussed in front of a broad audience. Karin Hartmann, chairwoman of the Architektinneninitiative (Women Architects Initiative), architect and author of the book “Schwarzer Rolli, Hornbrille” (Black turtleneck, horn-rimmed glasses), was invited as an external speaker. Together with representatives of RWTH Aachen University and the Faculty of Architecture, she answered questions from the audience in a discussion with the seminar participants.

Concrete reasons were identified as to why women more often than men are unable to break through the “glass ceiling” of higher education and the architecture profession. The solutions that were outlined here form a fruitful basis for continuing projects that look into the future in a positive manner. One of these tasks is to bring the work and the offers of the equal opportunities office into the faculty, right up to the individual departments and to adapt them to the relevant persons.

Impressions of the exhibition “Women at the Reiff”.

Photos: StudioLab Ivo Mayr

How will the project continue?

Fortunately, this idea has already borne fruit, and in the summer semester of 2023, the chair, in cooperation with the Equal Opportunity Office, will offer a “Women Career Lunch” which will cater specifically for female architecture students. Topics such as “Doctoral studies and career options for an aspiring woman architect,” “Office management for women,” “Awards and competitions,” “Successful networking,” “Presentation skills coaching” and much more are in the portfolio of the promising concept, which started at the end of April.

In the long term, the aim is to publish the results, as they have previously not been published. This still requires additional research and the appropriate funding. For the contemporary witness report, the staff of the Department of Art History would be grateful to receive any testimonies of former architecture students and women who worked at the Reiff.

– Authors: Frederike Eyhoff, Birgit Schillak-Hammers