Woman Good, Eileen (1893 - 1986)

Born
1893
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Died
1986
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Occupation
Academic and Architect

Written by Ann Standish, The University of Melbourne

Eileen Good was born in Melbourne in 1893 and educated at University High School in Parkville. On leaving school she was articled to the prominent Melbourne firm Purchas and Teague, while also enrolling in the diploma of architecture at the University of Melbourne. She was only the third woman to enroll in this course and in 1920 was the first woman graduate. She was also the first female architect to be elected an associate of the Royal Victorian Institute of Architects (RVIA). While breaking new ground for women in this and many other ways during her career, the decision to pursue architecture came about only because her first preference, to study engineering, was not then possible for women. Architecture carried with it at least some implications of domesticity and home life.

After graduation Good worked with the architect F. Louis Klingender, before setting up as a sole practitioner specialising in domestic architecture. In 1924 she was appointed as a senior demonstrator of the School of Architecture at the University of Melbourne, the school's first full-time staff member ( Argus, 29 August 1924). She was Australia's first female academic in architecture and spent the remainder of her life at the University of Melbourne, teaching in both Architecture and Engineering. She was promoted to lecturer in 1949. She retired in 1960 at the age of 68, after thirty-seven years of teaching and died in 1986. A street was named after her in the Canberra suburb of Greenway in 2004.

Published Resources

Books

  • Willis, Julie and Hanna, Bronwyn, Women Architects in Australia: 1900 - 1950, 1 edn, Royal Australian Institute of Architects, Red Hill, Australian Capital Territory, 2001. Details

Online Resources

See also