As a female architect, I was interested to see the New York Times address the dearth of women in architecture in their December 18 article “Where Are All the Female Architects?”

A few important points from the article:

• Until 1972 (and Title IX), most U.S. architecture schools didn’t admit women.
• Currently, half of all American architecture school graduates are women, but they comprise only 20 percent of licensed architects.
• Only 17 percent of partners or principals in U.S. firms are female architects.

The article resonated with me, and I thought I’d share a few reflections on my experiences as a female architect who began her career more than 30 years ago, just as women were starting to get a toehold in the industry.

Early Interest in Architecture

My interest in architecture started in childhood. For fun on weekends my family would go to open houses/new home models. We talked about what could be improved.

It lit my imagination, and when I went to school it became clear that I had a facility for math, geometry, art and other subjects that are important for anyone in a design field. As I got older, I started to think about becoming an architect. The idea of being involved in something essential like housing was exciting. At the time, it didn’t occur to me that I might be at a disadvantage as a female architect. I never thought I was any different from the men applying to architecture school, but I soon found that being woman did make a difference.

Architecture School

While I had some great professors at architecture school, some seemed to make greater demands of female students or to assume we had less ability than the men. Many of us felt that we had to prove ourselves at every turn; mistakes were less tolerated.

When I started, about 30 percent of my class was women. By the time I finished in 1982, that had dwindled to about 20 percent. Now, I would estimate that only about 10 percent of the women in my class remain in the field as architects. Many of the others went into aligned fields, like selling windows or flooring to architects.

Female Architect Role Models

When things were difficult, I tried to focus on my role models in architecture, who include:

• Louise Blanchard Bethune, who, in 1889, became the first woman fellow of the American Institute of Architects;
• Emily Williams, who designed homes in San Francisco and the Bay Area in the early 20th century;
• Josephine Wright Chapman, who formed one of the first woman-led architectural firms in America in 1907;
• Julia Morgan, the first female architect licensed in California, who was a primary exponent of the Arts and Crafts movement and worked on Hearst Castle;
• Jeanne Gang, founder of Studio Gang Architects and winner of multiple awards, among whose designs are Chicago’s Aqua Tower, 160 Folsom Street tower in San Francisco, and who is currently building the new U.S. Embassy in Brasilia, Brazil.

I’m very thankful for them and for the other women who paved the way for women in our field.

I was lucky to have an excellent mentor in my first boss, a female architect who had graduated with the first class at Columbia University to admit women to its architecture school. I applied to the firm specifically to work with her.

Work from a Place of Integrity and Strength

More often than not, I am the only woman at the proverbial table, and the two tools I’ve found most important in working with both clients and colleagues who may or may not respect my professionalism are strength and integrity.

I keep my professional guard up and try to speak from strength. I do my homework and research the issues that I need to address. When I don’t know an answer to a question, I say so. I then do the research needed and come back with a reasoned and thought-out response.

To me, integrity entails not only honesty and professionalism, but also keeping my eye on the goal. I want to build the client’s dream, and along the way I want to make sure that the time, money and aggravation required is minimized and that the client feels that all the effort was worth it. I want them to feel that they were heard and that their dreams have materialized.

Keeping It Cool

Because any building or remodeling job can bring up lots of emotions, things sometimes get tense and tempers flare. These are the times that hidden (or not-so-hidden) sexism tends to come to the surface. I’ve found that the best response is to ignore snide comments and focus on the work. The less I respond, the sooner it seems to die down. The message I try to send is, “I am a busy professional, and I respect that you are busy. Neither of us has time for anything but the job.”

On the few occasions where ignoring it doesn’t work and the client or colleague continues to disrespect me, I try to turn it around, asking them how they’d respond if someone spoke to their wife/daughter/sister that way, and I invite them to take a breath and rephrase their question or statement more respectfully.

Humor is also an effective way to diffuse the tension that can arise when it’s just me and a bunch of men on a site. For example, when people curse (not unusual on a construction site!), they sometimes look at me and apologize. I usually respond with, “I speak sailor, no problem!” The humor knocks them off guard, and we just get to what needs to be done.

Mentoring Other Female Architects

When I became I teacher, I was very conscious of my position as a role model and mentor to the women I taught. I had a lot of empathy for them as they faced some of the same hurdles that I was up against as a woman in architecture school, and I often found myself going to bat for them when there were problems with the administration. We forged important relationships, and I’m still in contact with many of them.

I believe that the best way to combat the problems and inequities is to increase the number of women in architecture, particularly in leadership roles. As my career has progressed, I’ve especially enjoyed paying forward the help I got early on by helping my former students get jobs and leveraging my standing in the industry to give them that all-important “in” that can help launch a career.