Being a Female in the Architecture Industry
Gender bias has been prevalent for a long time now and whilst we hear a lot about fighting for equality and introducing equal rights in the workplace, this isn’t the case nearly half of the time. Since this week we celebrated International Women's day, we wanted to re-open the discussion to not only acknowledge successful, intelligent women but to also draw attention to the critical lack of gender equality and diversity in the field.
Employment
If half of architecture students are females, why is there a disparity in the number of female and male workers in the industry? In recent years universities have been more aware of the gender ratio at which they accept applicants, which is an improvement in comparison to previous decades. However, the real problem is not that there aren't enough females in the industry but that they aren’t given an equal chance in the employment process and that they are not equally represented. Gender inequality and inequity is prominent in most industries, but how does it compare when it comes to architecture?
We’re sure you’ve heard just as many accounts of gender based bad interview experiences as we have, but it never fails to surprise us at how nearly all, if not most women, have had at least one biased interaction during their employment process. Some of the collective comments expressed being that women have been told they are less likely to be employed because they have a chance of becoming pregnant and taking maternity leave or that they are harder to deal with because of their ‘unpredictable moods’. It has reached the extent of interview pressures, which exist for everyone, becoming intensified for females as jobs are being offered with influence from physical appearance. This is evident in a study showing two thirds of employers admitting to the fact that they would be unlikely to hire a female if she was not wearing makeup. This on it’s own is a huge issue that needs to be addressed and whilst these are all unacceptable, something which recently took us by surprise was finding out that practices with huge, recognizable names are only just now, in the 21st century, slowly starting to employ women into higher positions.
An example of this is SOM, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, a firm founded in 1937 in Chicago. 2020 is the first year since they were founded that any females have become named partners to the executive committee of a 1250 person firm. This means that for the first time in 85 years of the firm being active, females were promoted to being partners, despite there being employees in the past who have spent 30+ years working for the company. This is one example out of many firms, but it’s not difficult to believe that there are more offices, some even with global recognition, that clearly do not believe in employing women into higher, well deserved positions.
So not only is it more difficult to get hired in the initial process, but women are disadvantaged against bias in being promoted to higher leadership positions, which they might deserve as a token of their hard work, but never receive because they are female. Continuing to dismiss the obvious devaluing of skill that women bring to the architecture industry is only going to create a bigger obstacle for working women applying for roles in the future.
Gender Pay Gap
Then there’s also the subject of the gender pay gap. The arrogance of employers to use gender as a bigger influence to determine your wage in comparison to the role responsibilities and hard work. It’s common for us to hear of instances where two individuals of the same role and work hours are getting paid unequal amounts due to gender. This is not a key issue which is just prevalent in small offices, but it is also a reality for many women working in architecture firms with big and respected names. In fact, they can sometimes be the ones with the worst statistical pay gap. As females, what’s even worse is seeing female founded or led practices having some of the biggest inequalities in pay. In addition to this, these are the same firms that again, have global recognition and influence into the media of the architecture community. Firms that we see in architecture magazines and journals talking about their ethos, values and ‘community’ of staff, claiming that employees are looked after, when there's an unfair treatment of females as a result of sexism and gender bias.
Overall, whilst some say that the architecture industry has come a long way in diversifying the demographic, we can conclude that this isn’t really the case. Even though, attitudes have changed and the profession is beginning to look more representative of all the members of society, it’s not plausible to believe that enough progress has been made in comparison to the time period that we have been fighting for gender equality. Pay gap, sexism and underrepresentation. These topics have been subject to many discussions throughout the years, but when will notable changes dominate the industry. When will all positions be available to everyone without bias?
Perhaps the questions which we have posed throughout this post seem implausible now but as society progresses, we hope to see more changes in a denser period of time.
Notable female-led firms
We thought it would be a good idea to give some recognition to a couple of female-led architecture firms, and praise them on the work they’ve accomplished in their architectural journeys.
Gbolade Design Studio, led by 2018 RIBAJ Rising star and director Tara Gbodale prioritises environmental design issues and puts them at the heart of their designs. From sustainable refurbishments to tackling flood zone challenges and more, Gbolade Design Studio successfully models the ways we should approach architecture whilst remaining environmentally conscious. Their Passivhaus-standard residential project in Kent synthesises user experience and rigorous considerations of the contextual parameters that the site poses, which is currently awaiting approval for progression of the project.
Jo Cowen Architects is a small-scale London-based architecture firm with a large-practice working environment. Set up in 2013, the company specialises in residential, mixed use, commercial and hotel designs, touching on sustainability and strengthening communities in their work. Amongst their projects are the Pelham Place residential renovation in Chelsea, which involved redesigning a Grade II listed building; as well as their plans for their mixed-use residential project in Marmalade Lane, Dublin which is currently in the planning stage. The firm also hosts workshops for young people to build their skills and knowledge in architecture and design, whilst addressing key issues of sustainability, social inclusion and more.
Sarah Wigglesworth Architects was established in 1994 and undertakes projects in the spheres of education, housing, culture, civic and urban design. Their extension of the Mellor Primary School in the Peak District location of the UK hosts a habitat wall and is constructed from locally sourced, naturally occurring materials, which is exemplar of their own sustainable approach to construction. Their work has been featured in notable publications such as DETAIL Magazine and the Architect’s Journal, including their Bike and Ride Station in Kingston.
We hope this conversation continues beyond this week where we celebrated International Women's Day as it’s actions of injustice and unfairness in response to hard work. Check out this weeks instagram post where we celebrated innovations by women at @archidabble
Follow @archidabble on instagram for resourceful content and follow and tag us to get a repost of your work. Happy International Women's day!
