This past year, the San Francisco branch of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) launched a survey designed to bring us closer to understanding the extent of the problem of (in) equality in the profession. The survey included 14,360 architecture graduates, who have completed approximately 50 degree programs at various universities and now work in 130 firms, as well as AIA members from all over America. As a result, a direct connection was found between the gender and ethnicity of employees and how their careers are developing (you can see the charts here). Apparently, we will not soon say goodbye to the archetypal image of the architect as a "lonely white man."
The very first such survey was conducted in 2014 to identify the numerical gap between the number of architecture graduates and the number of female architects working. Subsequent revisions (2016 and 2018) dealt with broader inequalities: they also touched upon ethnicity and sexual identity in the profession.
In the 2018 survey, 53% of men and 47% of women took part, of the total number of respondents, 76% were white, and 90% were heterosexual. The results were quite expected: White men, on average, earn more than their female counterparts with similar experience and owners of a different skin color. The former also occupy leadership positions with greater frequency. In addition, white architects of both genders have the advantage of promotions and are faster from rank-and-file to general manager. It also turned out that the largest loans for education have to be taken by black graduates of master's programs. “We see the gap between white men and women has narrowed, but at the same time the gap between white men and non-white men of both sexes has widened,” says Annelise Pitts, a member of the AIA research committee in San Francisco, from the bureau. Bohlin Cywinski Jackson. She believes that positive changes have occurred due to the public discussion of rights and equality, but a significant part of architects still remains in the "margins" of the profession. “For those who want to get started in this area, it is important to know that there are [certain] scenarios that can be implemented in [their] future,” explains the importance of such studies Pitts.
Women in American bureaus are traditionally a minority, with only 20% of licensed professionals in the United States, according to a 2018 NCARB report. The statistics of British researchers fit into the big picture and, in turn, confirm the fears prevailing in the UK: women also earn less. On average, a male architect takes home £ 47,000, while a female architect receives only £ 44,000. However, there is good news: the money gap is getting smaller at higher levels of the hierarchy.
Another major problem women face in the architectural field is sexual violence. However, the #MeToo movement received only one vivid response here: five women accused Richard Mayer of harassment, and at the same time it turned out that many employees, including managing partners, knew about the problem for decades. Then the master was removed from the leadership in his own bureau. Another episode attracted less attention: in November 2017, the daughter of a visionary, one of the pioneers of eco-architecture, the creator of the Arcosanti (Arcosanti) settlement in Arizona, laureate of the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale for the vital contribution of Paolo Soleri (1919–2013), Daniela said about years of harassment by her father that began in her early teens - including attempted rape when she was seventeen years old. In her story (in more detail here and here), the main thing was not even to tell about the crimes, but to raise the question: where is the border between a genius and a man, a wonderful work and its sometimes monstrous author? How can a person be condemned while retaining the value of his contribution to science, culture, and social development?
Daniela Soleri, a geographer-researcher, 25 years ago unsuccessfully tried to find support from her father's colleagues. But it is important to note that Soleri's Cosanti Foundation announced its full support for Daniela when she published her article in 2017 and promised to revisit his legacy. In addition, in 2011, when she spoke about the harassment to the board of directors of the foundation and left it at the same time, the board removed Paolo Soleri from the post of president and director of the foundation and forbade him to do full-scale studies of nude models.
In July of this year, Architectural Record magazine and its subsidiary, Engineering News-Record, launched a survey to find out the status of safety from sexual assault in design, engineering and construction. More than 1,200 architects and design architects took part in the survey (they made up about half of the respondents).
About two-thirds of all those surveyed reported having experienced sexual harassment in the workplace. This included inappropriate personal requests, questions, jokes, hints, and physical contact. 85% of the surveyed women and a quarter (!) Of men complained about these actions. At the same time, few of the victims were able to fight back: 12% of respondents sent a statement to the personnel department, about a fifth of them complained to their boss, most of the victims (34%) simply shared their bitter experience with a colleague. Only half percent of those affected by such harassment filed a lawsuit with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (the federal agency in the United States that oversees legal protections against discrimination in the workplace). More than a quarter of the victims did not take any action and did not tell anyone about the incident. About a third of those who reported to the employer about the inappropriate behavior of colleagues note that the management responded to their statements, but at the same time, almost half of them say that the culprit tried to deny the charges.
As the researchers explain, the refusal to advertise an unpleasant situation is associated with the fear of losing a job or worsening relationships in the team. Some people have to give up certain work obligations (for example, not to travel to a construction site) in order not to run into unwanted comments or actions. The founder of architecture firm Bureau V, Stella Lee, one of five prosecutors of Richard Meier, believes that resignation to sexual abuse, its subsequent normalization and concealment lie in the mentality of the profession, according to which "suffering is a necessary part of the practice." Cynthia Deng, co-chair of the Women in Design student group at Harvard Graduate School of Art and Design, believes that the harassment is partly driven by the ambiance of the profession - “the great difference in attitudes between professors and students, the intimate setting of the studios, and the widespread blurring of the boundaries between work and personal life."
Finally, the last point, which applies to both sexes. but women most often feel themselves to be losers - this is parenting. Combining a successful career in architecture with raising children is challenging, according to the first ad hoc survey from the UK-based Architects' Journal. AJ has collected nearly 600 responses from an equal number of men and women from all over the UK. In previous studies conducted by the publication, about 90% of women architects admitted that motherhood puts them at a disadvantage at work. This year, nearly half said they didn’t think they were promoted because they couldn’t agree on a family-compatible work environment.
While some bureaus are gradually adopting policies to support family employees, a significant percentage of employers still maintain an uncompromising culture of long hours and overtime. The study found that 28% of parental requests for flexible hours were either denied or only partially granted. Some women report that they had to leave architecture and move to a real estate development firm as a place of work that is better compatible with childcare. One interlocutor AJ admitted that she compensated the days of maternity leave with unused vacation for the past year, and also took unpaid weekends on Fridays for 3-4 months. On average, parental leave, judging by the architects' answers, is in practice 41 weeks for mothers and three weeks for fathers.
When asked if the problem is specific to architecture, one of the respondents replied that the secret is rather in the same position - "all or nothing". “Your job is your life. Young architects appreciate it, they even like it."
The state program of joint leave of men and women to take care of children, introduced in the UK in 2015, did not bring the expected success. Of the architects, only 10% decided to take advantage of this opportunity, of which 81% of the cases were granted. Keir Regan-Alexander, workshop director at Morris + Company, says employees should look for ways to make better use of the software. “The introduction of the SPL (Shared Parental Leave - approx. AI) policy leads to some changes, but very slow and gradual,” he says. “The dads said, 'Great, but we can't afford it.' To combine the role of an architect with that of a parent, Cyrus has to be more efficient and focused during his working hours.
In general, both researchers and architects themselves note that in terms of improving working conditions, the profession remains too conservative, and changes are taking place too slowly compared to other industries. There are fears that such "turtle" progress will lead to the departure of talented professionals from the architectural field. On the other hand, you can stock up on optimism and console yourself with the fact that much of what is considered unacceptable today was in the order of things several decades ago.
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