Canada: Alice Charlotte Malhiot

Born in 1889 in the Province of Ontario in Canada, Alice Charlotte Malhiot is considered the first Canadian woman to hold a diploma in architecture from an accredited school of architecture (1910), and one of the first women architects in Canada. Malhiot graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in Providence, Rhode Island (1910), where she also completed postgraduate studies (1947). After graduation, she relocated to Calgary, Alberta. She worked at the architectural firm of Lang and Major (c. 1910–1913) until moving to Edmonton, Canada, to enroll in the Department of Architecture at the University of Alberta. Her graduation was celebrated in newspapers where she was named the first woman architect in Canada; however, the statement was retracted when it was discovered that she did not complete all of her examinations required for graduation (1914). Esther Marjorie Hill (1895-1985) became the first registered woman architect in Canada after she graduated from the University of Toronto (1920).

Due to the difficulty of obtaining employment as an architect, Malhiot worked an assortment of jobs in Calgary, including as an office clerk of Consolidated Building and Investment Co. (c. 1913–1914), a stenographer for Swift Meat Co. (1916), and a secretary for the Alberta Lumber Company. While employed at the Alberta Lumber Company, she met her husband, Hugh Vivien Ross, with whom she collaborated on architectural drawings for customers purchasing lumber from the company. Malhiot and her husband briefly relocated to Waldeck, Saskatchewan (c. 1917). After World War I, she moved to Winnipeg, Canada (1923), then to Duffield Alberta (1930–1947), where she worked on architectural designs for her husband’s lumber business and managed a general store. After her husband passed away (1944), Malhiot eventually sold the general store, relocated to Edmonton with her daughters, and began to work for a construction firm. She returned to RISD for her postgraduate studies (1947) and then returned to Edmonton, where she established Ross Home Plans (1948). Malhiot died in 1968 in Edmonton.