Abstract

What is the status of women in architecture today? This chapter examines the complicity of architecture schools in perpetuating professional gender biases; the struggles of female architecture graduates to enter and remain in practice; reasons for women’s alarmingly high attrition rates; women’s underrepresentation in leadership roles (e.g. principal or partners of firms, tenured design professors); the importance of role models and mentors in the classroom and the office; how recent media coverage is bringing attention to architecture’s gender problems; and how grassroots organizations are fighting back against discrimination.