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.

Our academic environment provided us the support and tools to do well in design studios and lectures, and we were taught by admirable female and male professors. The struggles and challenges faced in school were faced by us all, no matter our gender. Yet, we knew this would not be the case in the field. Our positive educational experiences made us even more interested to learn if there was a way to bridge both our academic and professional worlds, and if so, could it better prepare us for our future? What were some steps we could take to ensure we had an equal role to play, a story to tell, a job to fulfill once we graduated? The answer was simple: cultivating leadership and fostering a community in which every voice would be heard.

Like all disaster preventative measures, in the fall of 2016, five friends came together to form what is now known as PennDesign Women in Architecture. We made it our mission to engage our colleagues, our community, and our extended network to collaborate and cultivate leadership, by eliminating the divide between our workplace and our education.

Fully aware that we would one day leave the school environment and enter the workforce as a competent force to be reckoned with, if the educational environment would not prepare us for the potential challenges that we would face upon graduation, we felt inclined to take matters into our own hands. Together with our classmates, colleagues, professors, and professional connections, we set out to mobilize a community of designers and thinkers with the purpose of increasing the visibility and voice of women in architecture. We wanted to understand the challenges that drive women out of the profession and what steps we could take to prevent this from happening to us. Our hope was to bring awareness to the gender disparity that exists in the profession and empower each other by fostering growth, promoting the success of women architects, and above all, cultivating the next generation of leaders in the industry. The organization fundraised to further the group’s mission, and organized countless firm crawls across the Northeast of the United States to better gauge various working environments and expand our professional networks. We organized two widely attended symposia and launched a continually expanding mentorship program. As students, we joined local professional organizations to better understand the needs of a young, female architecture workforce. We provided a platform for both students and professionals to discuss and debate the topic of Women in Architecture in workshops and training sessions, which equipped participants with tools and strategies for taking ownership of their careers. Happily enough, the group’s success can be measured in that for every achievement attained, two more opportunities for success emerged. This was due in large part to the support and camaraderie we received. Building this platform of women leaders not only fostered in us deep friendships but also a vast network of supporters. We learned that for every woman’s success, there are five other women rooting for her. Our interest is not in self-promotion but in celebrating our peers. And hence, integral to our mission is to document the ideas and achievements of our fellow female colleagues, much of which is found in this compendium of work. Our female role models, professors, architects, activists, and builders have made significant strides by pushing against the boundaries of gender inequality and addressing the important issues which continue to define our careers. By offering this publication, we hope to bring forward their work while contributing to the movement for a more equitable future.

We strongly believe that leadership begins when we each take responsibility and accountability for our actions, serving as enablers working to empower and continually inspire each other. We are lucky to belong to a profession that is rich in creativity and boundless in possibility. We are excited to contribute our efforts to furthering our profession and we hope to be active participants in the continual cultivation of leadership, storytelling, and a more equitable playing field. Whether working at the scale of a city, a residential home, an academic paper, a conference, in a classroom, or in politics, we are women in architecture and we have many stories to tell.