Designed by women and designing women: gender,planning and the geographies of the kitchen in Britain 1917-1946

Abstract

During the early decades of the twentieth century in Britain, architects focused on domestic architecture to a degree previously unseen. This paper considers the geographies of the shifting ideological relationships between the architectural space of the home and women, both those who designed and those who used it. The analysis centres around the spaces of the kitchen, and the work of two key individuals: the housing consultant Elizabeth Denby, and the Modern architect Jane Drew, and her publication of 1944, Kitchen planning. The paper argues that discourses surrounding the geographies of the kitchen can be seen as representative of wider societal shifts in the position of both middle- and working-class women at this time. The paper ends by considering what these discourses tell us about the changing nature of gendered spaces at this time.