Access to Nature – My Life in Landscape

Personal reflections and a family picture album raise some big questions.

1950s to 1960s – Early years and school

My Festival of Britain/New Elizabethan generation emerged from wartime constraints with a new sense of optimism. Some earliest landscape memories are of walking round the corner to our local park, Paddington ‘Rec’, where I learned to ride a bike; Regents Park, where I owned my own island; and Hampstead/Kenwood with the best climbing trees and a lake that had a pretend bridge. I believed that wherever you were in London you could see a tree. My first awareness of different gender interests was aged 5: when I wanted to dig for buried cities in the school playground (not conventional girl behaviour for the time) and when I was abandoned by my boyfriend to play football – something girls were certainly not invited to at that time. It has taken until the Lionesses won the UEFA Women’s EURO in 2022 to start turning this around. But whilst girls may be more likely to be allowed to join in traditionally male sports, are the needs of those who prefer more quiet enjoyment still being side-lined?

In Nature Study we placed quadrants in an oak wood near school and identified the ground flora. A seminal book ‘The Map that Came to Life’ (1), about two children going on a 10-mile walk, showed me how OS maps work. My horizons were expanded by holidays to the seaside, Lake District, and flowery Alpine meadows.

Children were supposed to go out and play.

January 1955 with my father and brother, Hampstead Heath.

© All images from the author's collection

As I reflect, it’s hard to imagine children being given such freedom to roam now. We learned how to navigate using memory, a sense of direction, maps and compasses. Parents have legitimate concerns about traffic, and fear the crimes splashed across the media, but the result is far more time indoors and in front of screens, with children having even less outdoor time than prisoners (2). Access to safe green spaces is limited and is reducing for many urban children, with densification and reduced funding adding to the pressure on parks (3). Although the value of time in nature is now well proven, the reality is that it is being lost. How will the next generation learn to connect with, or understand, the natural environment? We must push not only for more neighbourhood parks and open spaces, but safe access to them so children can leave home without constant supervision again.

Late 1960s to 1980s – Study and early work years

In 1967, the Torrey Canyon hit rocks off Cornwall, turning the seas black with oil pollution, killing many seabirds and other animals. It was my first awareness of environmental disaster, and I wanted to do something. I gradually focussed my learning on botany, geography, and art, eventually leading to a BSc. But what to do with it? With the seeds sown by a fellow student, and knowing the profession had equal numbers of notable leading women and men, I took a two-year full-time post-grad course in Landscape Design. I enjoyed the broad curriculum and long hours at the drawing board and shared a Northumberland cottage with a group of fellow male students, but it was only me our landlady asked to clean the place up.

The world of work was full of challenges. As a young woman, it was commonly assumed you were not part of the professional team. I was often the only landscape architect on the team and men held most senior positions. Constantly having to prove my competence was wearing. Pin-ups were on walls, not only in site cabins but some professional offices. On the other hand, when visiting site heavily pregnant, contractors were amazingly cooperative.

2. Sometimes I had to take my daughters to site with me when childcare failed. Hackney, London c. 1980

© All images from the author's collection

Managing work and small children was hard in the 1980s, but child care is more expensive and harder to find now. Fathers struggled too, as paternity leave was minimal and fathers were not always respected for taking it. We see this continue today. I worked part-time for local authorities because conditions of service made working and having small children possible. Even now, few workplace crèches have materialised. If more women were in leading roles, would we see more now to benefit the current generation? We must act now on this to see benefits for future generations.

3. At Liverpool Garden Festival. 1984

© All images from the author's collection

1990s to 2000s – Political change: public funding cuts & privatisation affect women in landscape.

When my children were old enough, I worked full-time, but funding cuts and political changes meant local authorities were losing their design teams, and I wanted to continue in the landscape profession. After moving to a small landscape practice, I joined a large multidisciplinary consultancy at a lower grade. This was standard practice for anyone with a gap in their working life, and particularly affected returning mothers. Equality legislation helped change landscape professionals and support new landscapes in theory, but hours were long and not flexible, few mothers of small children worked there, and most managers were still men. The work was varied and rewarding, and I was constantly learning new skills, so I hung on in there. But was a generation of women with valuable skills lost to the profession because the juggling was just too hard – did we succeed in trying to prevent this?

4. Garden of our Northumberland Cottage, c.1979

2010s to present – Benefits for women from environmental & equalities legislation & the pandemic; landscape and ageing.

I was not getting any younger and eventually took advantage of new legislation allowing anyone to ask for reduced hours. But were women compromising their progress by taking this route, which fewer men were doing? It gave me a functioning work-life balance without the default retirement age that affected many in earlier decades.

There is progress – young women landscape professionals have gained in confidence, whereas during my generation, it felt culturally unacceptable to boast. Despite this gradual change, women’s achievements at the upper levels of organisations are still not proportionate. Women may succeed professionally before having children, but what then? Is this still why it’s still easier for men to get to the top? My daughter – not a landscape architect – recently had a baby, and her company have offered her a promotion on her anticipated return. We must recognise that having children can add skills, rather than be a hindrance.

Looking forward

I see some further positives as a result of the pandemic: combined with advances in technology, a hybrid between office and home working is now common. Working hours can flex around caring responsibilities which can benefit both men and women. Does most childcare and housework still fall on women? We must look to ways to change this.

Environmental legislation and the urgency of climate change mean the landscape profession’s skills are increasingly sought-after – experienced women are doing amazing work with landscape specialist expertise. With our understanding of the need to be future-ready, the importance of broader diversity and inclusion will make ours a profession genuinely reflective of the whole spectrum of society if we can tackle those big questions.

Susan Lowenthal

Susan Lowenthal FLI

Susan Lowenthal is a Fellow of the Landscape Institute, with over 40 years’ experience within local government and the private sector currently working as an Associate Landscape & Urban Design Consultant for WSP UK Ltd in London.

References

1. https://the-artifice. com/the-map-thatcame-to-life/

2. https://www. theguardian.com/ environment/2016/ mar/25/three-quartersof-uk-children-spendless-time-outdoorsthan-prison-inmatessurvey

3. https://www. routledge.com/ Urban-PlaygroundHow-Child-FriendlyPlanning-and-DesignCan-Save-Cities/Gill/p/ book/9781859469293