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At the turn of the century, women were rare in the field of architecture—something that, while certainly improved, remains a deeply unfortunate reality of the profession that urgently requires attention and remediation.A notable exception was Ethel Mary Charles, the first women to join the Royal... View full entry
SCI-Arc has announced its Spring 2017 lecture series. And not a single female architect was included in the list. Really, SCI-Arc?Granted, the roster includes historian and theorist Sylvia Lavin as well as the artist Amalia Ulman—but the lack of a single practicing female architect is pretty... View full entry
Jeanne Gang completed three exceptional projects, including the dramatic Writers Theatre in Glencoe, and saw construction begin on her 98-story Vista Tower [...]
Carol Ross Barney finished the latest extension of Chicago's downtown Riverwalk [...]
Juanita Irizarry, executive director of Friends of the Parks, led the successful fight against George Lucas' planned narrative art museum [...]
What unites these achievements? Probably the fact that gender, in the end, had little to do with them.
— chicagotribune.com
More on gender in architecture:Struggles persist for women in the architectural workforceUT Austin's architecture school begins new initiative focused on "race, gender, and the American built environment"North Carolina loses AIA conference due to anti-LGBT HB2 bill passageWhy Zaha Hadid's gender... View full entry
Today, the New York City Council unanimously passed a set of bills requiring free menstrual-hygiene products in public schools, prisons, and shelters, making it the first city in the nation to pass so-called "menstrual equity" legislation. The city will budget for tampons and pads just like it does for toilet paper and hand soap. — New York Magazine
"Tampons and pads are not currently covered by public-assistance programs and some school-aged girls stay home or use products longer than they should when they get their periods. Women in prisons face rationing and degrading treatment from corrections officers."For more public health-related... View full entry
The architectural design profession continues to grow, with more women pursuing licensure than ever before, according to data released today by the NCARB...The number of practitioners working toward licensure reached an all-time high in 2015 with more than 41,500 individuals either taking the Architect Registration Exam, reporting Architecture Experience Program (AXP, formerly IDP) hours, or both. That’s up from 37,178 in 2014—a record high at that time. — Architect Magazine
But, as a recent poll conducted by the AIA shows, gender discrimination and harassment remains high. More than two-thirds of women polled in a survey in March reported a lack of gender equity in architecture.For more on the state of women in the profession, check out these links:How sexist is... View full entry
After Ms. Hadid died on March 31 at 65, The New York Times, in an informal online questionnaire, asked female architects among its readers to talk candidly about their experiences in the profession: the progress they’ve made and the obstacles they still face on construction sites and in client meetings. Below are edited excerpts from a few of some 200 responses we received. — The New York Times
Architecture, already a tough field, can be even more challenging if you happen to be female. As Christine Matheu from Bloomington, Indiana recalls in this article, “There was a time when women were not allowed to be members of the Century Club. About that same time, as a young architect... View full entry
What was it like to be Zaha Hadid? From teaching to developing her vision to turning down an opportunity to work with Rem Koolhaas, in this remembrance we collect a few of Zaha's first-person writings and interviews about her life and work from her unparalleled, groundbreaking career. On being a... View full entry
Civil rights lawyers say the new service being touted by local entrepreneurs, Chariot for Women, would probably conflict with Massachusetts’ antidiscrimination laws. [...]
safety of female passengers has dogged Uber and Lyft Inc. and regulators around the country are debating new requirements for ride-hailing services that include [a] background check [...]
SheTaxis, or SheRides, faced questions from regulators in 2014 when it launched an app that connects female passengers with women drivers.
— bostonglobe.com
More on the technology and ethics of ride-sharing:Uber faces suspension and $7.3M fine in CaliforniaKalasatama, Finland goes carless (and yes, there's an app for that)Mass transit may benefit expansion of Uber and other for-hire car servicesParisian Exports and Silicon Valley Imports on Episode... View full entry
You’ve probably heard that today is International Women’s Day. But what exactly is it? And why is it important?For many in the global West, the significance of March 8th is probably a lot less familiar than, say, Mother’s Day. In fact, the holidays originated around the same time, during the... View full entry
For a while I’ve held the belief that identifying oneself as an architect is a kind of drag, a mannered persona donned for effect. How else to describe the clichéd sartorial signifiers: extreme eyewear, black daywear and designer footwear? As the education of an architect is so historically weighted to a canon of male practitioners, theorists and educators, a woman entering the field often operates as a kind of architectural androgyne... — Mimi Zeiger | Architectural Review
"...we are trained to see world of design through black-framed, male-coloured glasses. Gender differentiation, then, comes with a thorny rhetorical question: ‘What’s the difference?’ If the goal is to recognise talent, experimentation and innovation, there seems no reason to create a binary... View full entry
It's hard to remember that just a few decades ago it was difficult, if not impossible, for a woman alone to take out a mortgage. Federal legislation changed that.
And yet, it's still surprising to learn how dominant single women have become in the housing market today: Their share is second only to married couples, and twice that of single men.
— npr.org
Related stories in the Archinect news:Millennials, not forming enough householdsA look at the growing influence of immigrants on the American housing marketLooking to buy a home in SF? Good luck View full entry
Amnesty International and the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, recently presented reports on the vulnerable position of women refugees and the dangers they face.
Europe is failing to provide basic protection for them, the Amnesty report stated.
This problem is now all the more critical because the percentage of women among the refugees who travel through Europe has risen dramatically.
— Al Jazeera
"All the women interviewed for the Amnesty report said that they felt unsafe and threatened during the various stages of their journey. Women are at greater risk of becoming victims of violence, robbery and extortion... There is also the threat of rape and sexual assault by smugglers, security... View full entry
As the first sole woman to win the medal in its 167-year history (women have shared the prize with others before), Zaha Hadid said, "I am very proud to be awarded the Royal Gold Medal, in particular, to be the first woman to receive the honor in her own right. Part of architecture’s job is to... View full entry
All those things that people talk about but you don't realize it until you go through it yourself... not feeling adequate, feeling like a failure...
Rosa Sheng, founder of Equity by Design and architect at Bohlin Cywinski Jackson in San Francisco, talks with KQED's Aarti Shahani about the hemorrhaging of women in architecture after graduation. Nowadays, about half of architecture graduates are women, but in the practicing workforce, that... View full entry
Architecture is both expansive and specific, artistic and technical. Agrest says that even after teaching and practicing the discipline for over 40 years, she still marvels at how much there is to learn.
'Architecture is really difficult. I realized that only very recently,' she says. 'It's like music. You can enjoy it but — to know it — it's a different story.'
Another bit of wisdom she shares with her students: The career of an architect blossoms late.
— npr.org
Now at 70 years old, Diana Agrest reflects on some of her teaching and design approaches in her illustrious career, with those approaches having influenced both former and current students and fellow educators alike.Related View full entry
