Six years ago, I wrote an article for Canadian Architect called Because It’s 2017: Gender Diversity in the Architectural Profession in Canada (see CA, January 2017). The study identified at least 13 significant barriers preventing Canadian female architects from achieving equity: from low or unequal pay and slower promotion rates, to rigid work schedules and poor return-to-work training. after parental leave. Although the rate of female enrollment in schools and completion of architectural studies exceeded 50% for many years, only 28. 8% of hired architects at that time were women. Quebec is an exception at 38%, a result my studies attributed, at least in part, to the province’s earlier arrival of affordable child care. That said, the tenor of the article is wary of optimism. Despite obstacles that persisted, turnover slowed and there was evidence that larger firms were taking action and that the increase of local women on architectural teams across the country was having a notable impact.
In the next five years, a lot happened. In particular, the #MeToo movement focused its attention sharply on architecture, fueled by disturbing accusations against prominent American architect Richard Meier. One result was the emergence in 2018 of an anonymous list of abusive male architects bluntly titled “Shitty Architecture Men,” which included some Canadians. Although it was temporarily withdrawn due to feared legal repercussions, it has given rise to many articles that present the race in a very harsh light.
In March 2018, for example, S. Surface, a Seattle-based curator of art, architecture, and design, wrote in The Architect’s Newspaper, “As a compendium of case studies identifying explicit conduct as misconduct, the list rejects the normalization of harassment. “, coercion and abuse of force as popular architectural culture. More recently, following allegations of abuse against architect stylist David Adjaye earlier this year, The Observer’s Rowan Moore wrote a scathing assessment of the profession’s educational and professional culture. This negative scenario has also coincided with the Covid-19 pandemic and its far-reaching consequences on the economy, current situations, and family care.
But looking at existing gender-based knowledge, adding Statistics Canada and the existing Canadian Architectural Practice Benchmark Report, provides a clearer picture of women’s prestige in Canadian architecture. In the last article written in 2017, data from the 2016 Canadian census was not yet available and research based on statistics from the last census in 2011. Census employment insights for 2016 and 2021 are now available.
Employment knowledge from the 2016 census implies that 33% of architects nationwide were women. More up-to-date is the table above, which breaks down the figures nationally and by province/territory for 2021. (A word of caution: the totals overestimate the number of registered architects. Whether this affects gender ratios depends on whether people of one sex are more likely to register than others. )According to the most recent census, the national representation of women is now 37. 9 percent. Prince Edward Island and Quebec are outliers with a representation of 60 percent and about 48. 8 percent, respectively. If Quebec is excluded from the report, the combined representation of the other regions falls to 34. 5 per cent from 24. 5 per cent in 2011. Regardless, statistics imply that the representation of women in architecture has increased by around ten percent over the past decade.
Some argued that while representation continues in the profession, the replacement rate does not reflect women’s graduation degrees in Canada’s accredited architecture schools. In 2021, the Canadian Architectural Certification Board (BCAC) released a task force report titled “Canadian Trends in Architecture Education, Accreditation and Certification in a Changing Environment,” which provides detailed old gender knowledge on enrollment and the finishing touch of a pre-professional (bachelor’s degree) and professional (MArch) degree in 11 Canadian schools from 2003 to 2019.
The CACB report reveals that for pre-professional systems in this period, the percentage of female enrolment fluctuated, but never fell below 50%, peaking at 63. 6% in 2018-19. All schools, except Dalhousie, reported that the overall female enrollment rate (each school added together over the full 16 years) exceeded 50%, with Laval and McGill leading the way at 65%. Women’s graduation rates fell in enrollment grades in nine years and surpassed enrollment rates in seven years; The overall net loss appears marginal. Compared to men, women’s overall bachelor’s degree completion rates exceeded their representation at 4 schools: the University of Manitoba and all 3 Quebec schools (Laval, McGill, and Université de Montréal).
However, in the case of master’s degrees, which are a requirement for the apprenticeship program leading to licensing exams and registration, the report shows a larger decline for women than men between pre-professional initiation and enrollment in professional programs, even in 2018-19. In six of the 15 years covered by the study, the enrollment rate of women in vocational degree programs exceeded 50 percent, overall the rate was lower than that of women who received prevocational degrees. Over the past four years of the study, the gap has averaged just over six percent per year. However, for those who entered vocational studies, women’s graduation rates exceeded their enrollment rate until mid-year, suggesting a limited loss (if any) between enrollment and graduation. In a total period of 16 years, only Waterloo and, again, the three Quebec schools reported female graduation rates above 50 per cent.
Another argument suggests a negative effect on women in the transition from a professional degree to a license. Overall, we don’t have the knowledge to measure this potential key negative impact. However, there is one exception: in 2023, the British Columbia Institute of Architecture (AIBC) reported that women accounted for 43% of those who finished their registration through the Architecture Internship Program (IAP) in British Columbia.
However, positive signs can be discovered by examining a breakdown of Census 2021 knowledge of architectural employment by organization by age and gender. This knowledge indicates a developing wave of women entering the profession. As the graph above shows, at the national level, the number of female architects under 30 years of age exceeds 60%. In the three largest provinces, Quebec and Ontario, they are below 50% (and slightly in the case of the former) for the 35-44 age group. British Columbia is slightly behind for those under 30, although it falls in line with the other two provinces for those aged 35 to 44, suggesting there would possibly be some leakage in the transition from initiation to registration in this province . However, if we take the average master’s completion rate for women from 2011 to 2016, which averaged 53%, and compare it to the percentage of female architects aged 30 to 35 in the 2021 census, which was 53. 8%, there is an argument that there are no leaks in learning, licensing and starting a career.
The 2023 Canadian Architectural Practices Benchmark Report provides insight into whether pay inequality remains an issue. Although employer sizes are small for the staff category, survey data suggests that average salaries for the positions of senior architect, intermediate architect, junior architect and trainee architect are comparable for men and women.
Despite the above, there is a lack of well-defined and verifiable knowledge about participation in apprenticeship, licensing, and initial employment programs. Even less reliable knowledge about rates of advancement is available, as well as statistics on corporate ownership, officers, and partners. To delve deeper into the current landscape of Canadian architecture, we conducted interviews with six experienced architects who have also been very concerned about the movement for gender equality in architecture.
This included Kate Gerson, Associate Architect at Dialog Design, and Jessica Yarish, Associate Architect at dHKArchitects, active leaders at Women In Architecture Vancouver; Heather Dubbeldam, principal at Dubbeldam Architecture Design and Jennifer Esposito, Superkül associate and now assistant professor at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU), active leaders at Building Equality in Architecture Toronto (BEAT); and Melissa Mazik, Associate Architect, B H Architects and RAIC’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Webinar Topic Expert. Finally, we also interviewed Annmarie Adams, a professor at McGill University’s School of Architecture and Faculty of Medicine, where she currently teaches. An architecture course.
When asked about the barriers identified in the 2017 article, there was consensus that progress has been made in removing many barriers, although the assessment of the direction of that progress differed. In British Columbia, Gerson and Yarish tended to point to slow progress, with the latter reporting that an informal vote of their female colleagues found that a majority recommended going beyond the original 2017 list in this article. However, he offers a more nuanced conclusion: “I think other people are more aware and looking to triumph over [these obstacles]; However, I also believe that there is still disorder in the maximum number of companies. They argue, like Adams, that while progress has been made in universities, this is not translating into a correlative increase in the number of women entering and remaining in the profession. By contrast, Dubbeldam and Esposito, as well as Mazik, say that progress over the past six years has been considerable, although much remains to be done. Dubbeldam, for example, says the movement towards learning, licensing and contracting has seen significant positive changes.
There is some general agreement on the progress made. Equal pay is less of an issue, Gerson warns that stereotypes can still play a key role. Women are now more likely to be treated calmly when it comes to the responsibilities assigned to them, and the fact that they are left out has diminished. More equitable mentorship is emerging, thanks in part to teams like BEAT and Women in Architecture Vancouver, even if it hasn’t been fully realized yet.
Some argued that Covid-19 had a negative effect on women by forcing them to take on even greater childcare responsibilities; others, Mazik adds, have experienced isolation in a career that relies more and more on team paintings. That said, the pandemic has also brought concepts for flexible running, adding remote paintings. Gerson and Esposito report that their corporations have generally returned to running in the office, but the concept of flexibility remains. According to Gerson, this increased flexibility is a real advantage: “If you can paint from home quite easily, it also provides more flexibility in terms of working hours. Mazik agrees. As a mother, she stops working when needed, but goes online in the evenings to catch up.
Mazik also reported on other positive effects of the pandemic. He found that the informality generated through Teams meetings and town halls, for example, “helped humanize appointments between control and staff. ” “We broke down the classic hierarchical belief between seniors and juniors and have also provided the opportunity to find other tactics to present and express our work,” she says.
But women still face barriers to earning partnership degrees, adding similar barriers to leadership styles and communication skills. “There’s a general concept of how to be a leader,” Esposito says, “but [really] there are a lot of tactics to being a leader in the profession. Demonstrating different, yet effective, leadership styles is now one of BEAT’s goals.
Communication skills are strongly linked, and it is a specific challenge for young women to find an effective voice that remains their own. However, communication is a two-way street, where existing prejudices tend to favor the “male voice. “Thus, says Dubbeldam, BEAT forums and workshops will continue to address communication capabilities while also attempting to broaden the definition of effective communication.
At the root of many of these disorders is the persistent presence of subconscious biases that promote masculine stereotypes or underestimate the degrees of expressed capacity of female architects. During the interviews, the factor of underestimation of the technical experience of the architects was raised. The increasing feminization in the race has coincided exactly with the increasing technical demands of the race. Mazik, a graduate of TMU’s technology-focused program, uncovers the confusing stereotype: “Our education was very technically oriented, educating very professional and knowledgeable women. ” in the field. My female colleagues are also very talented in the main technical points and in the main points of their work. We also see many technically talented women in leadership positions on the consumer side.
Bias is also seen through the effects of a survey of Ontario Association of Architects (OAA) members conducted in 2023. Women surveyed were less likely to feel included (69%) and supported (66%) than their male counterparts (75% and 72%). %, respectively). Conversely, they were more likely to report barriers (24% for women, compared to 15% for men) and discrimination (14% for women and 7% for men).
A significant shift to dual leadership in recent years, according to Dubbeldam and Esposito, was first a big step toward developing succession plans with other younger people moving into higher positions, along with a fairly temporary implementation of equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI). Almost all primary architecture firms have EDI committees and EDI profile criteria, they note. “The race as a whole has become much more competitive in the last ten years,” Dubbeldam says. “I think corporations know that we want to keep all those other smart people. “
I’ve left it for the last two major hurdles that women still face, both of which were discussed at length in all interviews. The first, unsurprisingly, relates to child custody and long-term family needs. useful, as is a generational shift towards a broader role for fathers, supported through parental leave schemes. But all agree that the new national child care program has the potential to have a significant positive impact, just as Quebec’s previous state-of-the-art program seemed to have. Still, the general opinion was that architecture is a high-demand, high-pressure career that can have difficult implications for both men and women. Mazik says the industry has noticed an accumulation of leadership opportunities for women. “The doors are open For us, there are still some sacrifices to make, especially to balance family priorities, which may simply postpone choosing those positions for later in our careers.
Second, architecture is a career strongly connected to interacting with your clients. If the culture of architecture and its technique for professional women lags behind our broader culture, as some interviewees suggested, the culture of construction sites involving developers, consultants, engineers, and tradesmen has not replaced much, Dubbeldam explains. “[BEAT] would like to focus on proposing some criteria that can be followed in the structural industry to address some of those issues. There’s a need to “unravel conversations about the issues with the site and the types of behaviors we’re experiencing,” Esposito adds. While Gerson acknowledges that progress has been slow, though still apparent, he sees significant change between generations and increased relationships with younger professionals. Mazik sees more women in general, either sitting around the table or on the spot. She says that although “there are still a lot of men at the structure site, [contractors] have brought women into their offices, including as site managers. “
Dubbeldam, Esposito, and Mazik recommend that the next five years should have been marked by primary progress for women, although, in line with Gerson and Yarish’s more moderate assessment of progress, they feel more effort is needed. That said, there are emerging indications that, driven by effective advocacy, labour market pressures, and generational change in architecture and similar professions, the next five to ten years can produce significant progress for Canadian women in architecture.
Rhys Philips is an architecture critic in Ottawa. I contributed to the progress and implementation of the federal government’s employment equity policies as a public servant with the Canadian Human Rights Commission and Labor Canada.
This article is from Canadian Architect’s series on the Canadian Architectural Practices Comparative Report (2023 edition). The full report can be purchased from the RAIC.
With 37. 9% female architects, Canada’s functionality seems to be in the middle of the foreign group. Although a 2021 AIA survey indicated that 36% of architects in the United States were women, professional platform Zippia provides a chart for the same year showing that women made up 23. 3%. Architects. According to the 2019 Bureau of Labor Statistics survey, at the time, 25% of architects were women.
A large 2020 report covering 31 European countries, compiled through the Council of Architects of Europe, states that 42% of architects are women. But like rates among Canadian provinces, national rates vary widely. Topping the list of architects were 8 countries – Croatia, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Poland, Serbia, Slovenia and Sweden – all reporting rates above 50%. This was followed by six countries – Belgium, France, Italy, Norway, Portugal and Romania – which reported rates of between 40 and 50% consistent. with a penny.
Of the five most sensible European countries, only France and Italy reached the 40 per cent level, while the others are slightly below Canada’s national levels: the United Kingdom at 32 per cent, Germany at 34 per cent and Spain at 34 per cent. consistent with Cent. In the case of the UK, women accounted for 31% of architects in 2023, according to the Architects Registration Board (ARB), new architects joining the register in 2021 were only around 50% women. The age tree in Europe is decreasing for women, although it is predominantly populated by men in the older age groups.
Other countries where statistics on women in architecture are available include South Africa (21%), India (47. 3%) and China (33%).
View all articles in the November issue
Read more articles from the Canadian Architect series on the Canadian Architectural Practices Comparative Report (2023 edition):
· Benchmark Report 2023: The State of Architectural Practice in Canada
· Benchmark 2023: What is your company’s monetary fitness?
· 2023 Baseline Report: Mixed Outlook
· Benchmark Report 2023: Architecture and Marketing with a capital “M”
· 2023 Benchmark Report: Company Expectations: Managing Remote Work and Flexibility
· 2023 Benchmark Report: Competitive Compensation
· 2023 Benchmark Report: Looking Ahead: Succession Planning and Business Value
· Benchmark 2023: Future Future: Adaptive Change in Architecture Education and Practice