‘Equity and Diversity in the Australian Architecture
Profession: Women, Work and Leadership,’ Australian
Research Council Linkage project, 2011-2014.
Dr Naomi Stead
Senior Research Fellow
School of Architecture
The University of Queensland
n.stead@uq.edu.au
Justine Clark
Senior Research Fellow
The University of Melbourne
Justine@justineclark.com.au
Women Architects in Australia:
What we Know
2011 Census: Architects Australia Full Time, Income by gender
35.0
30.0
25.0
20.0
15.0
Female
Male
10.0
5.0
0.0
Source: Analysis by Dr Julie Connolly based on ABS, 2011
Census of Population and Housing, Australia.
Women Architects in Australia:
What we Know
At School: There are 18 Architecture Schools in Australia. In 2011 there
were 9222 students in total across the two degrees.
• 42% of them were women.
Source: Summary by Gill Matthewson and Kirsty Volz. Statistics extracted by Carol Capp,
National Education Co-ordinator, AIA, from Australian Institute of Architects, “Architecture
Schools of Australasia” 2000 to 2011 editions, November 2011. Supplemented by data from the
2012 edition and 1987 to 1999 editions supplied by the AIA. Note: data pre-2000 is less
reliable than post 2000 as reporting protocols differed between Schools.
Women Architects in Australia:
What we Know
At School: The proportion of women graduating from Architecture Schools
increased rapidly from the mid-eighties to the mid-nineties. It then
levelled off. From 1990-1999 women averaged 40% of all graduates. From
2000-2010 this increased to 41% of all graduates.
At the end of 2010, 975 students graduated, 427 of whom (44%) were
women.
Graduates from all Schools of Architecture, 1987-2010. Data ‘smoothed’ by taking averages for
previous three year period. Source: Gill Matthewson and Kirsty Volz.
Women Architects in Australia:
What we Know
At work: 2006 Census:
Total number of architects 13,285.
Female
3089
(23.3%)
Male
10196
(76.7%)
Percentage of Women Architects By Age Group - according to Census Data
Source: Analysis by Gill Matthewson based on ABS, 2006 Census
of Population and Housing, Australia.
Women Architects in Australia:
What we Know
Registered Architects - 21%
At work: Registration.
•
If we take registration as a measure of
women’s participation in the
profession, there are 10,516 registered
architects in the Commonwealth and
2,286 of them are women (21.7%).
•
In 2004, women were 14.3% of registered
architects.
•
Although there has been a significant
increase in numbers and percentages,
the figures are lower than what might
be projected from the graduation rates,
and lower than the professions of law
(46%) and medicine (36%) with which
architecture is often compared.
Source: Architecture data obtained from individual
State Architects Registration Boards in 2012 and by
direct counts of some Registers. Law data from Heather
Moore and Kate Potter, "Advancement of Women in the
Profession," The Law Society of New South Wales
(2011). Medicine data from ABS,
http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/4819.0.
% men
% women
Medical - 36%
% men
% women
Solicitors - 46%
% men
% women
Women Architects in Australia:
What we Know
At work: Membership of the Australian Institute of Architects
•
•
•
•
In 2012, there were 11,738 members of the Institute
3,020 were women
This constitutes 26% of Institute members
However, there are different categories of membership and the
pattern of membership differs quite markedly for each gender
Male
Female
Affiliate
Affiliate
Graduate
Graduate
Student/SONA
Student/SONA
Honorary & Fellow
Honorary & Fellow
Member Level 1
Member Level 1
Member Level 2
Member Level 2
Membership Categories By Gender
Source: Analysis by Gill Matthewson, based on data provided by the Institute of Architects
national office, 30 March 2012.
Women Architects in Australia:
What we Know
Gender-based pay disparity: Graduate Salaries Reports
•
•
•
•
•
•
2010 Graduate Careers Australia Graduate Salaries Report places
women graduates in architecture and building on salaries
averaging 88% of male average.
The gap between men and women’s median graduate starting salaries
in architecture and building was larger than any other industry
surveyed
This would have young women in 2010 starting out on $5,000 a year
less than their male counterparts.
In 2011 the gap increased to $7000; a pay gap of 14%, up from
12%.
However, upon investigation the above figures are unreliable, due
to grouping of architecture with other disparate fields.
Analysis on architects alone demonstrates that the startingsalary pay gap is likely to be closer to 6.25%
•
There is still an issue, and architecture is still located in
an industry with marked pay disparity
•
2006 Census data shows women more highly represented in part
time work (28.63% of females, 10.85% males)
Source: Analysis by Justine Clark, ‘Architecture, Gender,
Economics,’ Architecture Australia, May 2012.
Pay inequity in architecture
Pay inequity
in architecture
Pay inequity in architecture
Australian Research Council Linkage Funded project,
‘Equity and Diversity in the Australian Architecture
Profession: Women, Work and Leadership,’ 2011-2014.
the issues:
× Women are under-represented in the architecture
profession in Australia
× This is particularly apparent at senior levels
× Proportion of female graduates is close to parity,
but women are not advancing in sufficient numbers
× Women architects tend to follow ‘atypical’ career
paths
× Trained women tend to leave, step sideways, or not
return from a break
× There is evidence of gender-based pay inequity
× There is evidence of the sidelining of architects
working part time
× Low pay, long hours, and difficulty in reconciling
professional and family life are also problems for
men in architecture, but they impact in different,
specific, and compounded ways for women
Australian Research Council Linkage Funded project,
‘Equity and Diversity in the Australian Architecture
Profession: Women, Work and Leadership,’ 2011-2014.
project partners
research team
× Dr Naomi Stead
×× Senior Research Fellow, School of Architecture, The University of Queensland
× Professor Julie Willis
×× Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, The University of Melbourne
× Professor Sandra Kaji-O‘Grady
×× School of Architecture, The University of Queensland
× Professor Gillian Whitehouse
×× School of Political Science and International Studies, The University of Queensland
× Ms Justine Clark
×× Senior Research Fellow, The University of Melbourne
× Dr Karen Burns
×× Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, The University of Melbourne
× Dr Amanda Roan
×× School of Business, The University of Queensland
× Ms Gill Matthewson
×× PhD candidate, School of Architecture,
The University of Queensland
× Kirsty Volz, Claire Humphreys, Neph Wake, Byron Kinnaird, Kelly
Adams, Luc Bourgeois, Mark Keogh
×× Research Assistants
research outcomes and applications
www.archiparlour.org
@_Parlour
•
Parlour website
•
Industry surveys
•
Guides to Equitable
Practice
•
Industry consultation on
equity policy and
practices
www.archiparlour.org
@_Parlour
1
Country / Territory
3.
4.
5.
•
At September 2013,
39,093 visitors
•
69,349 visits,
•
From 156
countries, 2661
cities
Visits
Pages / Visit
Avg. Visit Duration
% New Visits
Bounce Rate
69,349
2.46
00:02:56
56.43%
64.72%
(69,349)
Site Avg: 2.46 (0.00%)
Site Avg: 00:02:56 (0.00%)
Site Avg: 56.35% (0.15%)
Site Avg: 64.72% (0.00%)
45,122
2.76
00:03:26
47.71%
60.74%
7,251
1.94
00:02:01
76.35%
71.76%
2,975
1.84
00:01:55
73.01%
72.00%
New Zealand
2,092
2.60
00:03:05
59.18%
59.03%
Canada
1,265
1.75
00:02:10
78.50%
74.23%
•
2.
Launched May 11
2012, Brisbane
45,122
Parlour: Women, Equity, Architecture
1.
•
Launched May 11 2012
% of Total: 100.00% Australia
•
As of yesterday: 39,093 visitors
United States
•United Kingdom
69,349 visits,
•
From 156 countries, 2661 cities
Two industry
surveys:
• ‘Where do all
the women go?’
June to August
2012
• 1377 responses
• ‘…and what abut
the men?’
December 2012
to Feb 2013
• 918 responses
Parlour Guides to
Equitable
Practice in
Architecture
•
Closely tailored
to architecture
•
Informal,
accessible tone
•
Addressed equally
to employers and
employees
•
Parlour as ‘one
stop shop’
•
Accompanied by
fact sheets (in
development)
•
Two topics yet to
be defined
Tailoring resources to an architectural audience
Challenges and opportunities for
change – culture and institutions
•
•
Strong sense of professional identity: as liberal,
meritocratic, dedicated to the common good
This leads to defensiveness and denial of any gender equity
problem, but also some willingness to address it (‘but we’re
the good guys!’)
•
There are powerful processes of enculturation and
socialisation: the resulting tight community is inclusive of
women architects, but for this reason there is wariness about
gender distinction and the so-called ‘gender card’
•
The Australian Institute of Architects is a membership
organisation, hence inherently limited in the ‘carrots’ and
‘sticks’ it can employ
•
Low incidence of overt discrimination (with the notable
exception of staff returning from parental leave, wishing to
work part time)
Nevertheless equity is still largely seen as a niche or
‘women’s issue’
Perception that if there is pay inequity it’s because ‘women
don’t ask’
•
•
Challenges and opportunities for
change - informality
•
Exceptionalist discourses: the idea of architecture as entirely
unique and unlike any other profession – hence resources which
are generic or developed for other industries are not seen to
be applicable
•
Architecture as creative industry: practices (especially small
ones) have a disposition to be informal, anti-HRM, anticorporate, anti-profit, somewhat cultic (‘we’re all just
friends here’)
Surprisingly high levels of ignorance about legal
responsibilities in regard to equity (‘need to know’ basis)
Embrace of ‘creative chaos’: informality leads to high levels
of flexible working, but also many instances of poor
organisation and management, financial and otherwise
•
•
•
•
•
Rewards are seen to come in forms other than money: good work,
interesting work, interesting colleagues, public good; this can
be inadvertently inequitable
There is resistance to the very idea of ‘career progression’
Sense of ‘vocation’: requires demonstration of commitment
through very long hours worked (‘part time workers aren’t
‘real’ architects’)
Challenges and opportunities for
change – industry and economics
•
•
•
•
The industry is highly competitive and powerfully affected by
economic cycles, which has direct effects on equity (‘easier to
be equitable in the boom times’)
The ‘business case’ for equity thus shifts markedly in
different economic circumstances
Pay equity is linked to a whole range of other complex issues –
long hours culture, marginalisation of part time workers,
difficulties in returning from career break, etc
In summary: there is goodwill but ignorance, hand-wringing but
helplessness. There may be an increasing acceptance that the
issue is real. Organised systems which might redress inequity
are not well subscribed, indeed there is an active resistance
to such systems. Some prospect for slow and incremental change
if appropriate resources can be offered to both employers and
employees.