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There has been much discussion raised about "Why are women leaving Architecture? and more broadly, Why is the profession losing key talent?"  Both women and men practitioners are disillusioned by the myth of work/life balance: Women are grappling with "have it all" expectations of juggling family time with the demands of full-time work.  Men are struggling to support their families solely on an architect's salary and fall back on asking spouses to maintain their jobs. The lack of affordable childcare and high cost of living only magnifies the challenges.  How did we end up in this modern family dilemma? What can we do to improve the situation?

KEEP CALM and TAKE THE SURVEY

It has been an amazing launch week.  In the first 10 days of the initial PR effort, we have received over 825 responses to the Equity in Architecture Survey. Thank You to those that have taken the time to complete the survey! Additional thanks to those that have sent emails to provide feedback on the survey questions.

Due to the nature of individual circumstances of varying career paths, the survey will not be completely applicable to all situations. Unfortunately, one size does not always fit all. We know that we are light on questions for sole practitioners, small firms, alternative career paths, and the unemployed. Some of you have written to us about this and we have been struggling with these issues since we started this project. Thus our conundrum: limited resources and a very large and varied discussion to cover, deciding where to start, what the "right" questions to ask and who our primary audience would include for Phase 1 were only a few of the many discussions that took place before we even wrote the first question!

Despite these challenges, we have also received positive feedback from both women and men taking the survey thus far via the comment section of this website. If you would like to give us additional input, please fill out the form at the end of the survey page.

"This is a great survey and I look forward to the results."

Emily G. 

"This was a well-thought and developed survey. I felt that there was an opportunity to express issues that I am familiar with and look forward to seeing the results."

Eric

"I'm excited about the thorough nature of this survey and the potential for the results to show the state of the architecture profession and the future forms it may take. There is an underlying theme of gender bias, lack of mentorship, and low recognition of milestone achievements. This survey will bring these issues to light and expose talented professionals that should be further supported to become a positive influence in architecture."

Ian

"Thank you for your response and for sharing the link.  I was only on the survey page and did not see any of the project background.  I appreciate the work your team is doing and I'm thankful that people out there are pushing this discussion forward."

Sam

 "Overall, I feel like the survey was well designed.  ...It would be nice to somehow incorporate the opportunity to give feedback about working in architecture vs working in other industries."

Heather

 

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 So while we have much to learn from our first bites of this large whale, please continue to join us at the table with fork and knife in hand, hearty appetites for CHANGE and continued curiosity for digesting what we will soon find out.

Please take the survey, tell your firm, colleagues, alumni, professors, friends in the profession to take it as well. The information you provide will shed much needed light on the topics of retention and Equity in Practice. 

 Click here to take the survey.      http://themissing32percent.com