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This week, the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) announced its participation with the nonprofit Fawcett Society in a new study of women architects who are either currently practicing or have left the profession. The study, which is due out next year, aims to establish a clearer picture... View full entry
As scientists continue to advocate for further development of [geoengineering] technologies, the field’s demographics are drawing more scrutiny. Some researchers argue the lack of diversity affects both which geoengineering projects get discussed [...] and how their risks get calculated. — Wired
In a recent article, Wired writer Sarah Sax dives into the troubling demographics of the White male-dominated geoengineering field, a largely theoretical research program with the potential for global impacts, both anticipated and unforeseen. Explaining how the monocultural makeup of the... View full entry
The 6th Street Bridge team of 170 includes 15 women — the most on any commercial project in Los Angeles and nearly double the Department of Labor’s participation goal of 6.9% female crew members. — The Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times reports on the relatively high proportion of women construction workers helping to build the Michael Maltzan Architecture-designed 6th Street Bridge in Los Angeles. The bridge is being constructed via a joint venture between Skanska and Stacy and Witbeck. Skanska... View full entry
In the workplace, probably unsurprisingly to many women who are routinely talked over, patronized or ignored by male colleagues, research shows that rather than women being underconfident, men tend to be overconfident in relation to their actual abilities. Women generally aren’t failing to speak up; the problem is that men are refusing to pipe down. — The New York Times
Author Ruth Whippman, writing in The New York Times, questions the focus on coaching women to adopt the aggressive social behaviors of men in the workplace. Might these efforts be more effective if men were simultaneously encouraged to cede space, attention, and power in a reciprocal... View full entry
Tuesday marked Equal Pay Day, the point in the year when the average woman's salary catches up to what white men made in 2018. For women of color, for whom the gap is far greater, it won't be until November that each of their earnings match men's salaries from 2018. These statistics are a stark... View full entry
Achieving pay equity is a foundational act of building an environment in which creativity can flourish. Taking the first step toward equality via pay empowers us to move forward, together, to address the more complex challenges that await. Comprehensive, math-based tools are available to assess the problem. Let’s put them to work. Follow the money (or lack thereof), and fix pay inequity now. — fastcodesign.com
Jeanne Gang's firm Studio Gang recently scrutinized their office for any existing pay gap. She explains that despite their prioritization of equality there was in fact a small gender pay gap in their office. Using her own practice as an example, Gang urges every architecture studio to go through... View full entry
The Architectural Association made a loss in excess of £800,000 last year, its annual report has revealed. The cash-strapped school – which made nine redundancies this winter – posted net expenditure of £819,732 for the year ending 31 July 2017, according to accounts due to be filed at Companies House. This compared with a net income of £244,551 in the previous year. — architectsjournal.co.uk
The AA's annual report stated the "Expenditure increased in the year due to one-off costs in governance reform as part of preparation for the TDAP application, together with increased costs of compliance monitoring and property rentals at Bedford Square." The report also states an income issue... View full entry
Despite their recent work creating carbon-fibre roofs of impressive thinness, the UK-based Foster + Partners appears to be less adept when it comes to those made of glass. Releasing their gender pay gap data, the firm revealed yesterday that they have been, not so shockingly, paying women 10.5%... View full entry
Norma Merrick Sklarek was the first African American woman architect to be registered in New York and California. She was also the first black woman to be elected to the prestigious Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and the first female director of Gruen and Associates, where she... 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
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
One in five women worldwide say they would not encourage a woman to start a career in architecture [...]
dissatisfaction among women is lower in practices where a significant proportion of management are women, and in practices with regular career development reviews and/or mentoring schemes, with mentoring the better of the two. [...]
Nearly three-quarters (72 per cent) of women worldwide say they have experienced sexual discrimination, harassment or victimisation during their career
— architectural-review.com
Sigh. For more data on women in architecture, check out Archinect's Salary Poll.Other related news:Women in Architecture Awards recognize Odile Decq and Julia Peyton-JonesUn-Forgetting Influential Voices: Women in Architecture #wikiD Writing WorkshopZaha Hadid announced as winner of 2016 Royal... View full entry
