Jane Hall's Breaking Ground aims to rectify gender inequality by singling out female architects from their male counterparts. But, ahead of International Women's Day this year, Mimi Zeiger argues this corrective project could do more harm than good.

As a female writer who writes about female architects, I'm often asked to make lists of female writers and female architects. These requests mostly come from men. Well-meaning men, who want to do right by their differently gendered colleagues.
Although these asks raise the hackles on my back a little, I dutifully reply. However irritated, I've internalised my gendered role to be helpful. I want to promote my sisters-in-arms. I want to manifest an equitable field with my recommendations. And I fear that if I don't answer another panel, lecture series, or exhibition will launch into the world with pitiful representation. I'm no martyr in this respect. Many of us regularly do this kind of professional housekeeping. Indeed, if we ignore the gender equity aspect, it's a form of gatekeeping. But it was just after a recent request for a list of women that Jane Hall's Breaking Ground: Architecture By Women landed on my desk.
The volume reinforces ongoing labours to repopulate the canon
It's a beautiful volume; bold with a tomato red cover and bright orange text. Colour photographs of built work by dozens of renowned architects fill page after page, occasionally punctuated with rousing quotes by leaders of the profession, beginning with...