‘There’s still work to be done to make space for the needs of women’

Jane Darke Photo 1

Barbara McFarlane and Jane Darke were contributors to a ground-breaking analysis of the way architecture and design were marginalising women in 1984. Here they look back at the book, its context and its legacy

Making Space, Women and the Man-Made Environment was first published in 1984. It has just been reissued with a new introduction examining its context and legacy.

The setting in which the ideas in the book evolved was second-wave feminism of the late 1970s and 1980s, a time when women were wanting to take control of all aspects of their lives. The book analysed the way design embodies current assumptions about the relative places of men and women, the marginalisation of women in architecture as well as the unequal power between designers and building users. Now, 38 years later, have things changed?

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