A Marino, with some trepidation I direct you to this previous discussion. This is a touchy subject.

And here is a previous discussion on women and the issues they face in the profession today.

As a woman in the field for 12 years now, I can honestly say I have never encountered any serious harassment issues due to gender. Certainly some contractors, especially older, experienced, traditional types, and especially when I was younger, treated me with scepticism and gave me a hard time. But nothing bad, and in the office environment I've never dealt with anything but mutual respect from male collegues. If you can survive electrical engineering (my sister did - whew) architecture will probably seem like a cake walk.

I seem to spend a lot of time directing first-time posters to previous discussions - my memory is too good, or I have too much time on my hands!

Thanks..Liberty Bell. I did go through the post on Int Arch vs Arch. Sounds like its just another way to say interior designer and there are some licensing issues with the use of the word architect. I am not sure I want to go the route of int designer..however, I would like to focus on interiors. How is that possible as a full fledged architect? Also, what are all these rumblings about not doing actual design and just drafting? I didnt do a lot with my engineering degree, I transitioned into IT quite quickly in my career (accidentally, not by choice), another male dominated area, but have never had to be doing something to someone else's spec. If architects end up being mostly disgruntled, then I caN LOOK INTO areas like graphic design where I know I will be designing. I just dont want to go back to school after 10 years of working with stars in my eyes, I am much too old for that.l (31)

Focusing on interiors as an architect is certainly possible. Many larger firms have interior design departments. With an IT backgroudn, you ight be valuable to a medium sized firm (15-25 people) who can't afford to employee full-time computer staff but need to keep networks up to speed.

Only speaking from my personal experience - at a 20-person firm, the younger staff who were very computer literate and could do 3-D work actually ended up spending a lot of time "designing" - the partners would give them basic ideas of building siting, massing, materialsm etc and the kid would develop the concept in 3-D.

There are many, many ways to design - but if you are an architect, epecailly at a middle to upper level, you are very likely spending a lot of time doing project management and construction administration and marketing, not designing. If you're vision of being an architect is sketching up an idea on a blank piece of paper and handing it off to someone else to take care of producing your idea, you probably don't want to go into architecture. It takes a lot of labor to get a building built - labor that I enjoy but a lot of people don't. I don't know if it's similar in other design professions, but since architecture takes a long time to produce and graphic design doesn't - I'm talking in the fabricationschedule, not the conceptual schedule - i imagine other design professions see a much quicker return on idea investment.

There's also been a recent post "is 30 too late for MArch grad school?" you might check out. My feling has always been that an architecture education allows for a pretty broad area of learning, and once you have a degree you don't necessarily need to ever get licensed in order to do "design" work in whatever field. But I'm not sure you would need to further your education anyway, except to learn more about design. What about looking into a large arch firm that has in-house engineering? Maybe you could get a foot in the door that way and transition into design - I don't know how likely that scenario is but it can't hurt to talk to some people in a firm to get their take on it.

As far as women in the field, Yes it is still a male dominated field, both architecture and construction, but personally I don't have any big problems at all with condescending attitudes, sexual harassment - at least to my face. BUT I have heard/seen women not having such an easy time though regarding: respect from contractors, maternity leave, breaking the glass ceiling when it comes time for partnership or promotion.
I'd like to think some of the contractors actually prefer that I am a woman, they like it when I come out to the site perhaps? They treat me surprisingly well face-to-face.
On a side note, I think women make great designers because we can think with both sides of our brains at the same time.
Interiors has a lot of women in it, you wouldn't be out of place there.

i sort of think that you shouldn't let the male/female ratio be such a big factor in deciding on a career /career change.

There tends to be an "uneven equality" between men and women in almost any field...so if architecture /interiors are what you are interested in, then just go for it!

as you said...your success if truly and completely up to you!

I am truly concerned about being a CAD bitch and just doing dry stuff. I already did engineering. I want to do something creative. At the risk of sounding silly, this is what I'd like to do. I would like to take houses, and gut them and redo them, change the facade maybe, that kind of stuff. reposition stairs etc. I also like the kind of work that people do for boutique hotels. or retail stores. I was looking at the arch portfolio of a NYC firm called Gabbelini associates. I loved their work. How come with all this negativity towards interior designs, I rarely see an unfinished space in an architect's portfolio? except plans and elevations of course. I think my two interests are somewhat clasing..I dont want to work with colors and fabrics, but I'd like to be able to know how a resin floor is poured and all that stuff. If as an architect I end up doing CAD renderings for some one else's projects, then I can do that as an EE (which I am not doing, as a matter of fact). My best bet is to find some architectural firm in Rochester (I doubt there are many) and find someone who will let me sweep their floor so I can see what architects really do. I am just depressed that I will spend all thbis money and end up with a frustrating career change. SEE IT for where I am at. I am 32, have worked in software for 9 years and make quite a bit of money.l am sick of it, want something creative in my life, would eventually like to be a property developer, but dont have money to waste on what women (and lots of men) seem to be complaining about as an unfulfilling career. I will research this to death, it almost seems interior design is a shorter pasth. but I hate colors, and furniture. I am such a minimnalist and have all kinds of built ins, no one would hire me because I couldnt push much ostentation (except white curtains or vola taps or mecho shades)..my design career is doomed. I want to so rehab entire houses and re-arrange a space. I couldnt do that as an ID for sure.

i don't think that anyone in this profession gets to do "creative" things all the time. and ID people do learn about more than just furniture and colors, i have an ID friend who works for a large firm and gets invited and paid to go on carpet mill tours all the time.
i understand if you feel your clock is ticking, but you can't expect to just jump right into what you want to do because of that. it might take you a while to find a place that would be a good fit. i would suggest talking to some places that do work you are interested in and finding out what it would take to work for them.
good luck! it's awesome that you have so much experience and want to pursue something new.

and i also think that you shouldn't have any issues with being female.
i don't really understand why you are worried about it, when it seems like you have greater concerns with figuring out what it is you want to do.

You are right. I have worked in IT for 9 years and have almost always had very few women working with me. Never had a problem. Didnt have a problem in engineering either. I was a strong student so I doubt I will have problems in college. I need to figure out what the actual work is like. carpet mill tours would get me depressed I would think. Its not easy to make a change like this. I am not a high school student and cant seem to be starry eyed about anything without analyzing it to death. Because if I take these years out of my life and end up with something as depressing as I feel about an essentially uncreative line as I am in, then I will have wasted everything. What type of work do you do Stephanie?