RIBA host inaugural West Midland Women in Architecture lunch


Although we may have a female Prime Minister, there are still a significant number of industries where women are under-represented and Architecture is one of them.


 Recently RIBA have been raising awareness around this issue.  Earlier this month it hosted its first inaugural West Midlands Women in architecture lunch with an almost exclusively female guest list. The lunch coincided with RIBA’s #EthelDay campaign named after RIBA’s first women member Ethel Mary Charles who joined in 1898. The campaign celebrated the contributions made by woman to the field of architecture.


Victoria Farrow speaking at the lunch

Debbie Walsh, RIBA WM Regional Director, said that the #EthelDay campaign acted as a catalyst to launch the lunch.

“We decided that our lunch in Birmingham should celebrate and showcase the tremendous depth and breadth of talent and expertise of women working within the West Midlands and we certainly did that!” She said.

Walsh highlighted some facts about the industry that also contributed to the drive behind the launch.

“Whilst women architects are now quite visible the statistics show that there is still a long way to go before we reach some sort of parity. Currently women make up just 26per cent of ARB registered members and only 19% of RIBA Chartered members. In the West Midlands it is just 13.9 per cent!”

However she noted that there seems to be some evidence of change within the architecture world.

“The glimmer of hope however is that of the RIBA under 35 year old membership bracket 38% are female indicating a demographic change which should work its way through the profession in the next ten to twenty years.” Walsh said.

The eighty diners attending the lunch were entertained by six speakers discussing their careers in architecture and offering inspiring anecdotes to inspire the audience.

Mary de Saulles at the lunch

The speaker that stole the show was Mary de Saulles who is in her 70th year of practice. Recounting the beginning of her career, Mary told the audience how she would come across job vacancies that specified ‘no women.’  She joined RIBA when female associate membership was just 6.8 per cent, and of the 2010 RIBA Fellows only 11 were female. In that year the overall percentage of qualified female RIBA members was only 3.9%. Throughout the course of her career Mary has pioneered for women’s rights.

Other speakers included Alison McKerracher, Executive Director of ADP Architecture Ltd , Victoria Farrow, Programme Director BA (Hons) Architecture at BCU, Alexa Woodward, Associate at Glancy Nicholls Architects, Vimi Solanki-Gohil, Architect with Glenn Howells Architects and Meelad Faris Architectural Assistant at Glancy Nicholls Architects.

RIBA have said that the event was a huge success and it is currently in the process of organising the next one which will take place in autumn. Ruth Reed, first female President of RIBA, has already agreed to speak. Whilst the inaugural launch hosted mainly females, it is intended that future events will target audiences from wider across the architectural profession.

 








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