Although women are slowing joining the architecture work force, but male percentage is still dominating female percentage. As bad as it sounds, gender discrimination still existed and needs a serious fix. In the article “Sexism in Architecture: The Path Still Taken?” by Neil B. Chambers, Founder and CEO of Chambers Design, the most surprising statistic is that “two thirds of women feel they have suffered sexual discrimination during their career in architecture”. In a survey targeting women in architecture published by The British Architect’s Journal reported that:
47% of the respondents believe males earn more for doing the same work
61% believe the building industry does not accept the authority of the female architect.
55% think there are not as many opportunities for women as there are for men
Why can’t building industry accept female architects? That’s is simply a bias comment. Plus, the survey also reported that “51% of the respondents said they had no difficulty resuming their career after having children”. Females in this profession know it is hard to have family and have architecture as a career at the same time, but they are doing their best to stay with what they are always passion about, which is architecture. Why should the males in this profession, who only have their career to worry about, to judge female architects, who is raising the next generations and doing this for the benefits of whole family including males? People only see the disadvantage of being a female architects, but don’t see their hard work behind the scene and accomplishments. They should remove their colored glasses and realize we are not in 90’s anymore.
I feel like the reason women are less likely to get jobs in a long term career like architecture is that they are less likely to stay for as long as men. Women are more likely to leave the work force when they get kids, and if they stay more likely to switch to part time to care for kids. Why would a company want to hire a person who would be likely to leave in 10 years?
ReplyDeleteShirley, I really like this article and I agree with it. Your points about this article are very true, and you list very strong facts to support you initial argument. One thing you may want to work on is giving a call to action. As in you may want to come up with a solution for this issue. In this article you state many facts and explain them, but I don't really know how this can be fixed. That is something you may want to think about. Overall very nice job on this blog post.
ReplyDeleteThis is a really well written article and I totally agree! The points are very true and I think it might help to maybe explain what we are going to do about this inequality and HOW we can change it. Now that you have clearly established there is something wrong it would be cool to hear your opinion on how to change it. Good article.
ReplyDeleteI loved this article because I considered being an architect last year. It opened my eyes about the bias in not only this career but many others. There are a few typos but overall this was a very influential and informative blog post. I especially love the picture because it shows what the male workforce looks at women as.
ReplyDeleteIf 47% of respondents think that men earn more money than women, then why would companies not want to hire more women. I think the only reason that men earn more then women is because they work less. Having to run an entire family is very difficult and takes a lot of time, which they have to take of work. I do not think they are being discriminated, instead they are just forced to work less hours because they run a household.
ReplyDeleteI had not realized that there was such gender discrimination in a field that seems so open and creative. Realizing that even in the 21st century there is still such blatant and obvious discrimination in the work place because of your gender only makes me angry with the architecture community for allowing this to go on for so long. Shirely, you have brought to light a concern that is not known, and you are introducing it for others to be aware of. I very much like what you said and the facts that you used to support your argument. The picture you chose to represent this post, perfectly says what you are trying to say. How is such an issue not been brought to light before?
ReplyDeletePart of the problem is that not as many women study architecture or engineering, but why have these majors remained dominantly male, and what can they do to attract more women?
ReplyDelete