BUILDING OUR VOICE Ramona Adlakha & Ramune Bartuskaite A little over three years ago, as is typical of the architecture student’s experience, we found ourselves engaged in a rather spirited discussion on the pros and cons of our first completed year of graduate school. Having both worked at design firms before enrolling in the Master of Architecture program at the University of Pennsylvania, we chatted about the vastly different lives we had led prior to graduate school. We were keenly aware of the differences in our experiences as young designers working at a firm versus graduate students in architecture, and just how much our worlds had shifted from being employed in the field to pursuing our academic endeavors. Graduate school opened up a world of opportunities, many of which were not as apparent in the workplace. Speaking with classmates, we realized that our views resonated with many of our female peers who had worked in the field before going back to school. It was not lost on us that while a fifty/fifty distribution of men and women existed in our graduate school, in the field only thirty-two percent of practitioners are female, and a mere seven percent are in positions of leadership (as reported in our Equity by Design article by Annelise Pitts). Why have these metrics of women students not carried over to the profession? What is happening between graduation and licensure that leads to the decline of women practicing architecture? This disparity between the academic world and the working environment is an issue we became interested to understand further. Moreover, why did our years as undergraduate students in design programs not prepare us for the demands and inherent biases of the workplace? Would our graduate education better prepare us? What could we do to ensure this? As noted, there was no quantitative gender disparity at school, yet the skills and tools required to thrive at work were fundamentally missing from our graduate education. Those of us who had previously worked in the field understood the challenges that women faced in the profession. We were concerned that there were too few female architects to look up to and learn from. The few practicing role models we attained over the years struggled on their journeys to the top. Given available statistical evidence, our firsthand experiences, and the stories we heard from our colleagues, it became clear that women in architecture were not getting the recognition, respect, and opportunities for advancement as quickly as their male counterparts. We learned the working environment was not accommodating to women with children and families, often forcing them to choose between excelling at work and spending time with their loved ones. Too few firms allowed for the flexibility to excel in both. This is concerning, for architectural excellence can only be as good as the diverse body of people who practice it. By not providing equal opportunities to support the fifty percent of female graduate students, we face the risk of losing a tremendously talented, strong, and dedicated workforce who could greatly contribute to the advancement of our field.
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