The good architect and the bad parent: On the formation and disruption of a canonical image

This essay explores the canonical image of the architect to emerge in the wake of women's entry into the profession at the turn of the twentieth century, analysed through the lens of writings on women architects published in Germany between 1900 and 1920. Disseminated broadly to a professional and general audience, this discourse addressed the proper qualities of the architect and assessed whether women were fit for the job. The gendered canonical image to emerge from these debates resisted the feminine and the maternal, and female architects at the time responded by adopting or challenging these exclusions. Recent films depicting 'good' architects as bad parents suggest the tenacity of fin-de-siecle stereotypes, raising the question of how old myths frame new narratives that continue to limit and proscribe.