top of the class Work from 2010-11 by student Yemi Aladerun of Kingston University’s Unit 2: ‘Palazzo Lidl’, taught by tutors Adam Khan and David Knight
and remaining top of your game in any field, let alone notoriously arduous architecture, is very hard work and remains considerably more so for women than for men, at least in the first few years. But it is not impossible. There are several women who go through their full-time education while raising children, and excel to boot. As an indication, two of my school’s recent Part 2 submissions to the President’s Medals, and one Part 1, were from full-time female students with one or more young children. I don’t know if these superwomen will go on to win awards
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heading their own practices, or as a team with their husbands, or not at all. But I will hazard the opinion that, whatever they do, it will be their choice. I have seen enough to convince me that, should they want to, women could do everything. But perhaps ‘everything’ is not that attractive. In the long run, a good balance between different aspects of life may be more desirable than a frantic pursuit of all the awards going. Maybe forming partnerships in life and work is the most intelligent move, for both women and men, allowing them to combine family and
working life in otherwise impossible ways. Or perhaps we are still in a transition period and soon may be reading such commentaries as this with mirth about the repressed past. Either way, I hope that brilliant women like those I have the privilege of teaching every year keep coming for more, and success in their highly demanding architectural training convinces them that they can have it all, if only they want to. Alexandra Stara is principal lecturer at the School of Architecture and Landscape, Kingston University
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