We Need to Talk About Moving Towards Gender Equity in Architecture
The gender chasm in architecture persists. Students see it in their mentors, practitioners experience it in the office, and media representation of the profession follows in kind. While schools of architecture are more and more demographically gender-balanced in their student populations, faculty and the practice both remain vastly skewed,[i]indicating that programming in schools may be leading genders into the profession inequitably or “losing” certain populations along the way, or that the bridge between academia and practice is broken. This doesn’t even include the experience of people of non-binary genders in architecture, of which documentation is almost non-existent. Without equal representation of all genders in the profession, it is virtually impossible that the practice of architecture as a whole is serving its clients and communities equitably. It takes a multitude of perspectives to serve diverse communities thoughtfully and effectively, and it is architecture’s charge to do so.
This dialogue series aims to address issues that are important to students, that they face in studio every day, and put people in conversation with them who can help them understand how to clarify and use their voices for the betterment of their experience in school, and of the profession they are bringing their voices into.
This event is made possible by the Austin Foundation for Architecture.
Event: Friday, February 7, 2020 1:00pm
School of Architecture, the University of Texas at Austin
Main Jury Room, GOL 2.110
1-3pm | Panel discussion
3-3:30pm | Coffee break
3:30-5pm | Panel discussion
Panelists:
Grace La, Harvard Graduate School of Design; Principal, La Dallman Architects
Shelby Doyle, Iowa State University College of Design; Founder, Computation and Construction Lab
Mabel O. Wilson, Columbia University; Principal, Studio &
Damon Leverett, National Architecture Accrediting Board; The University of Arizona College of Architecture
[i]Allison Arieff, “Where are All the Female Architects?,” New York Times, December 15, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/15/opinion/sunday/women-architects.html.