Women and Expo - an Untold Story: From the First Women’s Pavilion in Vienna to the Promotion of Gender Equality in Osaka

World Expos have introduced a wealth of technological and industrial innovations, as well as awe-inspiring architectural achievements across numerous pavilions. Yet one pavilion, almost unnoticed at the time, left a lasting mark on the history of women’s representation.

While nearly half a million visitors admired the spectacular “Rotunda” and other national pavilions at the 1873 World Expo in Vienna, a pavilion modestly opened under the name “Exhibition of Women’s Work” (Pavillon der Frauen-Arbeiten), later known as the Women’s Pavilion, the first of its kind at a World Expo.

At a time when women’s presence in public life was barely visible, this pavilion showcased women’s creativity and entrepreneurship across agriculture, crafts, industrial production, science, and the arts. Today, although only rare physical traces of the Vienna Women’s Pavilion remain, its legacy continues to live on. Thanks to the new exhibition at the Vienna Technical Museum, opened to mark the 150th anniversary of the Expo, this important chapter of history has received its due recognition. Through the platform Women at Work, the museum has digitised more than 1,000 objects and documents, including rare catalogues and records.

Feminists quickly recognised World Expos as a platform for building transnational solidarity, amplifying their demands, and sparking debates on undervalued and poorly paid women’s labour, women’s lack of access to education, and the fight for equal rights. After Vienna, these issues remained central to women’s presence at Expos in Philadelphia (1876), Chicago (1893), and Paris (1900). The Women’s Pavilion in Chicago was particularly noteworthy, serving as a forum for debates where feminists of the time demanded greater - and indeed equal - rights for women: access to education, fair employment and working conditions, suffrage, and representation within state institutions. This pavilion and the debates that unfolded within it during the Chicago Expo helped spread feminist ideas and led to the founding of numerous associations that exerted significant social and political influence.

More than 150 years after Vienna, the Women’s Pavilion has re-emerged symbolically at Expo 2025 Osaka through a dedicated programme promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment, aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 5. The Pavilion presents the stories and perspectives of women from across the globe. Exhibition designer Es Devlin created interactive “palaces of memory” dedicated to Banana Yoshimoto (Japanese writer), Emtithal Mahmoud (Sudanese activist), and Xiye Bastida (Mexican climate advocate). Their stories, dilemmas, and life-turning points are transformed into a futuristic, emotionally powerful, and striking multimedia programme. The pavilion itself, designed by architect Yuko Nagayama, draws inspiration from the traditional Japanese Kumiko technique and was built using the repurposed façade of Japan’s pavilion from the previous World Expo in Dubai. At its core is a space dedicated to discussions on women’s empowerment and the promotion of gender equality. In this way, Expo Osaka has also become a stage for collective reflection on a future in which women and girls have equal access to education, employment, leadership, and public life, echoing the organisers’ message: “This is not a solitary struggle, but a shared mission.”

Given the historical importance of these themes at past World Expo it is certain that the Specialised Expo in Belgrade in 2027 will also serve as an important stage for promoting women’s creativity, a place where women’s contributions are seen, heard, and celebrated.