In the midst of the Portuguese dictatorial regime (1933-1974), Maria Lamas (1893–1983) wrote in 1948 a book titled As Mulheres do Meu País (The Women of My Country). Intended to portray and highlight the experiences of women as well as to report the policies imposed on them during the regime, this book, in my view, also reveals an alternative perspective on the architectural agencies of women in Portugal at that time.

By describing the women and their built environment – farm houses, rural granaries, collective washing spaces, communal ovens – architecture is described as inextricably linked to the individuals who inhabit and use it. By documenting their daily lives and capturing intimate moments in their homes, she acknowledges the role of women in transforming and creating their living spaces. The flower pots in rudimentary stone facades, their artful embroideries that decorate the peasant homes, or the exquisite whitewashed houses are examples of this understanding. It is this way of seeing by Lamas that I find relevant for architecture history.

Encountering As Mulheres do Meu País made me question my architecture studies that tended to exclude voices of women. With it, I came across another representation of women’s agency within the architectural sphere that goes beyond the practitioner. To integrate such works as a source for architecture historiography is to cultivate alternative practices that can empower and unveil agencies from women and other marginalised groups.