Is it really that bad? The status of women in architecture and the gender equity movement

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.