Erin Kim
Seoul Foreign School
Abstract
The establishment of architect Sophia Hayden Bennett’s Woman’s Building at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, while featuring a building to honor women’s artistic contributions, ultimately reinforced gender segregation by isolating women’s work from the main exhibitions. By preventing genuine integration and recognition of women’s achievements alongside those of men, the exposition further marginalized the minority. This paradoxical approach created inclusion while maintaining exclusionary practices it claimed to address. The Woman’s Building, though groundbreaking as the first structure designed by a woman architect, allowed organizers to claim they provided women opportunities while preserving male-dominated primary exhibition spaces.
The physical separation sent a clear message about women’s perceived value and proper societal place. Rather than challenging existing hierarchies, this segregation reinforced that women’s work belonged in a separate sphere, regardless of quality. The building’s existence justified excluding women from main halls where their achievements might compete directly with men for recognition. This separate-but- unequal arrangement translated social limitations into architectural form and created a physical representation gender-based discrimination under a disguise.
