[2] During Edelman's time in Columbia University, her class had several women (due to World War II) who were never given respect to by the architecture professors.

After graduating from Columbia, Edelman struggled to find work and was told by numerous employers that they would not hire women.

She worked briefly designing mental hospitals before she was hired by the Greenwich Village-based architect Huson Jackson.

[1] The next year, she was a co-author of "Status of Women in the Architectural Profession", a resolution for the AIA that encouraged the institute to adapt to the "climate of change" brought about by the feminist movement of the time.

Her designs won awards from the AIA, the Municipal Art Society and the City Club of New York, and she and her husband won the Andrew J. Thomas Pioneer in Housing award from the AIA's New York chapter in 1990.