This is a study of houses designed by architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Robert Venturi for independent women who headed their own households. It explores the challenges that unconventional attitudes and ways of life presented to architectural thinking - and to the architects themselves. Among the houses examined are Hollyhock House, the Farnsworth House, the Schroeder House and the villa, Les Terrasses.