It’s been over 20 years since American women reached near parity in university architecture programmes. But only now are female architects populating the professional ranks in greater numbers and taking on leadership roles at firms, according to new statistics.
What can a woman offer that a man can’t? Many women say they bring a sensibility to the design world that better reflects the needs of clients and occupants.
However, getting into the professional world, for men or for women, is still no small task. Architecture graduates, more often than not, end up in city-planning, academia or in consulting positions because it is a struggle to even make it through their three-year post-graduate internships, which offer low pay, long hours and are ruthlessly competitive.
Source: Alex Frangos, More Women Design Their Way to the Top: Female Architects Take On Firm Leadership, Big Projects, Wall Street Journal, November 5, 2003.
For text (WSJ subscription required) http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB106799319035388800-search,00.html
For more on Affirmative Action and Gender Issues http://www.ncpa.org/iss/soc/
FMF Policy Bulletin\18 November 2003
