Honoring Women 

Photograph of the Women’s Table, ca 1993

Sketch of the Women’s Table by Maya Lin with photographer’s commentary, ca. 1993

Maya Lin graduated from Yale College with a B.A. in architecture in 1981. Lin’s student work was nationally acclaimed when she won a competition to design the Vietnam War Memorial during her senior year. Lin returned to Yale only a few years later in 1989, when the university commissioned her to design a sculpture to mark the twentieth anniversary of coeducation at Yale. Lin designed the Women’s Table, which sits in front of Sterling Memorial Library. In the sculpture, Lin draws attention to the number of registered female students at the university with inscribed numbers marking each year from 1701 to 1993, when the sculpture was completed. The Women’s Table is the most famous monument dedicated to female students on Yale’s campus, though the number of commemorative monuments continues to grow as the university becomes more attuned to the importance of honoring its female students.

As the Yale School of Architecture continues to grow, it admits more and more female students. There is still work to be done when it comes to recognizing and honoring these students and those who have graduated before them. The school continues to plan events such as the Women in Architecture conference and exhibition that was held in 2012. Today with the 50/150 celebration, we commemorate these female students across Yale University, and I hope to particularly honor the female architecture students who came before me with this exhibition dedicated to them and to all of my fellow female Yalies.