Today at 6:30pm in New York City, Design critic Alexandra Lange will moderate a panel of award-winning female architects (Galia Solomonoff, Claire Weisz of WXY Design, and Marion Weiss of Weiss/Manfredi) on “their experiences in a male-dominated field and how the gender landscape has changed since the start of their own careers.”
According to an excellent blog post by Lange, she already knows the first question she’s going to ask: How do they feel about Architect Barbie? But the panel will go beyond gendered toys. As Lange points out, many women have been reluctant to discuss the issues facing women in architecture, preferring to let their work speak for itself; however, the reality is that little has changed for women over the last 15 years (As Lange says: “when I graduated from college in 1994 the percentage of female members of the AIA was 15 percent. In 2010, it was 17 percent.”)
The time is ripe to truly explore this issue and possible solutions -including systemic change and improved work/life balance (not just for women, but for all architects).
If you’re interested in taking part in this panel, you can buy your tickets ($20) here.