This article was written by some ladies who live on the other side of the pond.
This University of West England study proved quite a helpful read. Particularly the questions it asked women in design. The first page posed the challenging question, "Can you name six female architects?" This question I presented to a friend of mine and he struggled but did manage although he had to borrow the partner here at my firm for his list. Also the question was alive or dead? Alive and STILL practicing. This was the first eye opener. The second came when the article cited the 1919 Sex discrimination (removal) Act as the first time women were ALLOWED to be architects, or any type of professional.
The article goes on to establish the social system of architecture. This begins in architecture school with the boasting of length of time spent in studio and if someone can not hack it, then they are a wimp and seen not fit for the profession. This is a practice of boasting seen in BOTH male and female architects. Another discovery is with the role of a woman in architecture that is successful and secures her position as a Queen Bee. This woman is found to usually be hostile towards her junior colleagues and not supportive towards their goals. This is a practice that I am familiar with both in professional practice and academia. Another problem is what the article dubs the pretty factor; this is where you dress up and sit at a meeting for purely decorative purposes. I had a discussion with a female colleague recently on how often this has occurred for her in the industry.
The article goes on to look at other professions like medicine and law; and the fact that half of these professions consist of women. Architecture is a profession that does not see this number. According to the RIBA of the 38% of women studying architecture only 13% will practice, as of 2002. I am interested in this number for the AIA.
Question that I hope to answer (from the article):
"What should women and men in the architectural profession who wish to promote change and action for diversity in the profession be doing as individuals or as the employers of a small number of people to assist with this culture change?"
Suggestions I hope to use:
Equal opportunities task force in construction:
Have a clear vision of what you are trying to achieve with equal opportunities.
Set goals for equal opportunities
Have a long-term plan to achieve equal opportunities
Have a policy that is published, understood and operated
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4 comments:
Kara,
My my where do I begin? Thanks for the information from the article. I was surprised at some of the statistics you provided. I will say that in numerous classes of mine we have been presented with the same challenge you posed and no one could come up with the female architects. I couldn't do it either when I first went to school.
I wanted to say that after all the discussions we had in Boston about this topic I am glad YOU are doing this paper. Matt brought something up at our one and only lunch out, that who should feel discriminated against if a minority (race, gender, etc.) is given a job over a white male just because they are a minority. I at first stated the white male because it is reverse discrimination and Matt begged to differ. I agree with him. I don't want to be known as getting the job just b/c I am a woman. What credibility do I then have? So... how do we provide the equal opportunities equally? I have no clue how to enforce that. I think it is more about changing the attitudes and views of people then it is about creating equal opportunities. However, I have no solutions to that either. I have a hit a wall. I am going to be thinking about this all the time now! What have you done to me? If I think of any suggestions for your paper I will be sure to post them for you.
-Jaclyn
Jaclyn,
Thank you. I have also been quite disturbed by this topic and have sent Herb an email about my concerns. I too did not want to believe the statistics or want to tackle this subject. As I was directed earlier this week; “The things you have to do are the things you’re most afraid of. Because they’re the ones that matter." I hope your paper is developing nicely and please let me know if I can be of any assistance to you as well.
I've never understood what I call the Navy SEAL culture of architectural training, in which we expect that 20% will succeed, 70% will fail, and 10% will drown while trying.
To some extent, this may be a paper on the masculinist concept of competition. Why do we compete? What are we competing over? Why can't we increase the scope of the field rather than fight to keep people out of the small pool we currently swim in?
This is perhaps one of the most difficult things for us to answer, or even consider. It's easy to say "why aren't more women comfortable with entering and continuing architectural practice?" It's another (and far more threatening) thing to say, "How would architecture have to be fundamentally different to not sustain its masculinist biases?"
In response to Herb's comments:
I think we need to compete to survive. When I entered school they told us look to the left, look to the right, look at yourself; one of you will be here on graduation the other two will be gone. Why does it need to be presented like that? Why do they give these outrageous assignments the first few weeks in order to weed us out?
I feel that the competition of the females is even greater. I don't know if Kara, Annie or Stacey will second that. I know that I always felt I had to work harder and the females were always trying to be better than the one next to them. I believe this comes from the idea that the females will be the first/most to go and therefore we force ourselves to work harder to avoid that. That is one reason I think the ones who accomplish graduating do well in the field. I believe they bring that work ethic into the professional world and are constantly competing to prove themselves.
How can we change this? We NEED to change this!
-Jaclyn
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