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Is design still a boy's club?
Zaha Hadid is not the only woman architect but, according to the AIA (links on my blog) in 2006 although nearly half of all architecture students are women, they make up only about 26% of all architectural staffs and only 13% of all licensed architects. AIA stats over time show very gradual improvement, however. I wasn't able to find any statistics for other forms of design, but I'm interested if anyone knows of any.
As for minority groups. People of color make up 16% of all architectural staffs, although only 1.5% of licensed architects (about 1600 people) are African American and there are no statistics on Hispanic architects (America's fastest growing group). Black women make up only 0.2% of licensed architects, according to Architect magazine, although they make up 2% of attorneys.
Women interviewed in the Arch. Record article express exactly the kind of experiences as those mentioned above...
Yet it seems "unfashionable" to comment on this, let alone make an issue of it. How many conferences on sustainable design do I attend where the only people on the main stage are older white men? A lot! How many women are now qualified to play those main stage roles? A lot.
(sorry I couldn't get line breaks in this comment...)
and as for the pay difference between men and women, i hate to sound off politically but that's one of the major reasons I'm voting for Obama. Hopefully once he fixes that, it will never be an issue again. It should have never been to begin with.
http://www.idsa.org/whatsnew/sections/dh/activities.html