India’s architectural establishment often frames its gender exclusions as relics of a colonial past, yet the problem persists with equal vigor today. The recent re‑branding of Zaha Hadid Architects to ZHA—after a decade‑long licensing dispute—highlights how a woman's name can be monetised and then discarded once legal obligations cease. While Frank Gehry’s name has lingered on his firm’s door for seventy years without court intervention, Hadid— the sole female Pritzker Prize laureate—did not receive comparable courtesy from the very field she spent a career challenging.

Historical Context

In 1936, Perin Jamsetjee Mistri became the first woman architect in India and possibly Asia, heading her father’s firm for fifty years and designing Art‑Deco bungalows to Salvation Army hospitals across two continents. Yet, ninety years later, her name is known to only a handful of heritage scholars, while her male peers dominate the narrative of modern Bombay.

Similarly, Urmila “Eulie” Chowdhury, the lone Indian woman on Le Corbusier’s Chandigarh team, translated his ideas, managed major projects, and co‑designed the iconic Jeanneret chair—yet most histories credit the men alone. The Victoria and Albert Museum is among the few that have begun to correct this omission.

Contemporary Institutional Barriers

In 2023, architect Vandana Sehgal lost the Council of Architecture presidential race by a single vote (15‑14) to Abhay Purohit—the closest the statutory regulator has ever come to a female head in its fifty‑plus‑year history. The Indian Institute of Architects, founded in 1917, elected only one woman, Divya Kush, as President in 2015, serving a five‑year term before the post reverted to a male‑dominated roll call.

Path Forward

Dismissal of the past as “colonial residue” does not absolve institutions from responsibility. To break the cycle of symbolic inclusion followed by exclusion, professional bodies must create transparent career ladders, equitable partnership models, and enforce gender‑balanced leadership quotas. Merely achieving parity in graduation numbers will not translate into senior positions without deliberate policy interventions.

As India stakes its claim on the global architectural stage, it must ensure that the women who built its legacy are no longer erased from the story but celebrated as co‑authors of its future.