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Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

Marion Mahony Griffin, gender, female artists, female inferiority

College

Fine Arts and Communications

Department

Art

Abstract

“An artist’s limitations are his best friends.”1 For many artists, this statement is perhaps true, but throughout history, one limitation has proven fatal: gender. The perspective on female artists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was merely an extension of historic acknowledgements of female inferiority; this general mentality towards women in general only exacerbated the struggle for aspiring females in the realm of advanced professions, and specifically within the realm of architecture. Looking back at prominent architects throughout history, one can hardly identify a single female architect of note. One such tragedy in the history of females and architecture is Marion Mahony. She was the second woman to graduate from M.I.T, the first licensed architect in the United States, and was Frank Lloyd Wright’s primary assistant for over a decade. These facts alone should have been enough to ensure her a place on the canonical list of prolific architects; however, they did not.

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