Architecture in the Family Way: Doctors, Houses, and Women, 1870-1900

This text explores the relationship between domestic architecture, health reform, and feminism in late 19th century England. It examines the changing perceptions about the English middle-class house from 1870 to 1900, highlighting how attitudes toward health, women, home life, and even politics influenced architecture. The author argues that the many significant changes seen in this period were due not to architects’ efforts but to the work of feminists and health reformers. Contrary to the widely held belief that the home symbolized a refuge and safe haven to Victorians, Adams reveals that middle-class houses were actually considered poisonous and dangerous and explores the involvement of physicians in exposing unhealthy architecture and designing improved domestic environments. She examines the contradictory roles of middle-class women as both regulators of healthy houses and sources of disease and danger within their own homes, particularly during childbirth. This work discusses an ambiguous period in the histories of architecture, medicine, and women, revealing it to be a time of turmoil, not of progress and reform as is often assumed.