Architizer — “After Zaha: What Now for Women in Architecture?”

March 31, 2017

“The unavoidable truth is that, despite the number of women entering the profession being higher than previous decades, this is a demographic that continues to face daily battles for equality and respect within the AEC industry as a whole.

Just one month prior to Zaha’s death, the Architectural Review published a survey stating that 67 percent of female architects do not believe the building industry has fully accepted the authority of women in the profession. One in three survey participants said the current system of training in architecture favors men over women. This premise is backed up by some eye-opening statistics: According to Next City, while 43 percent of architecture students are female, just 17 percent of AIA members who are firm principals or partners are women.

In 2016, Jeanne Gang of Studio Gang stepped onto the stage to receive the Firm of the Year award at Architizer’s A+Awards. Gang is a star architect without any of the associated pretension, as proved in her acceptance speech and in countless interviews on her firm’s growing body of landmark projects. Gang is living proof that women need not have aggressive, cutthroat personalities to reach the top — they simply need to possess great design talent, terrific management skills and a quiet insistence that they will not be held back by something as incidental as their gender.”

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