Each year, Women’s History Month (1 to 31 March) and International Women’s Day (8 March) give us the opportunity to shift our focus onto the major contribution women make to the architectural profession and reflect on our progress to address the structural barriers that perpetuate inequality and impede women’s success.
Supporting women in architecture
We recognise our responsibility to address systemic inequalities, and are pleased to reflect on our progress highlights from the past year:
Our first female Chief Executive
In January 2023, RIBA welcomed its first female Chief Executive, Dr Valerie Vaughan-Dick MBE. She spoke to RIBA Journal about being a woman in leadership - we look forward to the change she will bring.
Read Valerie’s RIBA Journal interview.
Memorandum of Understanding
In 2022, RIBA joined five other leading membership bodies, representing 350,000 members, to launch a three-year action plan to create a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive sector. Its objectives include data collection, improving understanding of the transition from education into employment, and improving EDI standards.
We’re tracking our progress and holding ourselves accountable through measuring outcomes and working towards target deadlines.
29% Equal podcast
This podcast celebrates women who have shaped architecture today. It is hosted and produced by Sarah Ackland, a practising architect and PhD candidate at Newcastle University, and the interviews are partially funded by the RIBA Research Fund.
In 2019, an ARB (Architects Registration Board) survey revealed that only 29% of qualified architects are female-identifying. Women are routinely excluded from the profession, from the books we read to who we study at university. Sarah asks guests on the podcast about their activism, who inspires them, and what a more equitable city might look like.
She said: “I created 29% Equal in an attempt to ensure the erasure of women does not continue. When speaking about the lack of diverse leaders in architecture, I am often met with discussions around the lack of role models, hearing that women and people from diverse backgrounds ‘did not exist’ in architecture. This is clearly untrue – these people are simply less celebrated or documented. By creating space for women's voices and capturing their work, the 29% Equal interviews can contribute to future archives as we work collectively to build a profession of not only diverse genders but of diverse people, reflecting the cities that we live in”.
Listen to the 29% Equal podcast on Spotify.
Blog: Women in architcture who inspire
RIBA Director of Education and Learning Dr Jenny Russell has decades of experience in architectural higher education, and many women in the field have inspired and supported her along the way. This Womens History Month, she celebrates them.
Read Jenny’s blog on women who inspire her.
Trailblazing RIBA Award winners
Two prestigious awards were won by trailblazing women in 2022. Professor Kester Rattenbury, a teacher, writer, and academic with over 700 publications to her name was awarded the 2022 RIBA Annie Spink Award for significant contribution to the advancement of architectural education.
In July 2022, Reem Taha Hajj Ahmad, a prospective MArch (RIBA Part 2) student at The Bartlett School of Architecture at UCL received the RIBA AHR Scholarship which supports students from low income households. Reem stood out with her human-focused approach, and we look forward to seeing her career blossom.
Find out more about RIBA Awards and scholarships, bursaries, and grants.
Women in architecture exhibitions
In 2022, RIBA hosted a series of exhibitions with a focus on women in the world of architecture.
Radical Rooms: Power of the plan exhibition – Architecture Gallery, 66 Portland Place, London
From 28 April to 24 September 2022, Radical Rooms: Power of the plan, created through a special partnership between architect Charles Holland and visual artist Di Mainstone, explored the power of the domestic plan and re-examined the role of women in architecture.
RIBA China Chapter: She is an architect exhibition - ZiWU Gallery, Shanghai
From 29 July to 24 August 2022, RIBA China Chapter hosted an exhibition celebrating women in architecture as part of the chapter's Women in Architecture Digital Nexus programme.
Upcoming exhibitions
For 2023, RIBA has a series of current and upcoming exhibitions that explore women in the field of architecture or feature work by women.
Sweet Disorder and the Carefully Careless – Practice Space, 66 Portland Place, London
From 22 February to 29 April 2023, RIBA’s Practice Space is hosting the free exhibition: Ideas, Faces, and Places – an exploration of the schools of thought developed by critic Robert Maxwell at the Liverpool School of Architecture. This exhibition features a series of iconic portrait busts by artist Celia Scott.
Visit the Sweet Disorder and the Carefully Careless exhibition.
Monica Pidgeon 1960-1970: a magazine editor and her camera – First Floor Gallery, 66 Portland Place, London
From 3 March to 27 May 2023, this free exhibition in RIBA’s First Floor Gallery will showcase the photographic work of Monica Pidgeon, revered editor of Architectural Design between 1946 and 1975. The exhibition was curated by RIBA Curator of Photographs Valeria Carullo.
Visit the Monica Pidgeon 1960-1970 exhibition.
OUT of Space – RIBA Library, 66 Portland Place, London
On display until 30 Match 2023, this free exhibition was organised by the RIBA LGBTQ+ Community internal group, and the RIBA Library and Collections team to highlight contributions of the LGBTQ+ community within architecture and the built environment. It includes the homes of famous queer women such as Sissinghurst Castle, home of writer and garden designer Vita Sackville-West and Plas Newydd, home of the Ladies of Llangollen.
Visit the OUT of Space exhibition.
RIBA Collections
This month, we're also spotlighting articles that focus on women architects and designers from within the RIBA Collections.
RIBA Collections research guide: Women in architecture
Want to find out more about women in architecture? This guide signposts just some of the material relating to the hundreds of pioneering women represented in our library and collections.
See the RIBA Collections women in architecture research guide.
Plas Newydd and the Ladies of Llangollen
Chair of RIBA’s internal LGBTQ+ Community group Emily Jeffers explored how a cottage in rural Wales has led contemporary historians to re-evaluate how we project our own understanding of female queer relationships onto historic figures, particularly women, who have expressed intimacy in different ways.
Read Revisiting the Collections: Plas Newydd and the Ladies of Llangollen.
Pioneers: Then and now
In 1986, four female architects spoke at a RIBA event ‘Pioneers: Women Architects and Their Work’ about obstacles in this male-dominated profession.
Dame Henrietta Barnett and the Hampstead Garden Suburb experiment
In previous years, RIBA has celebrated #EthelDay to continue the path of Ethel Charles, the first woman architect to join RIBA in 1898. We have spotlighted other female pioneers including Dame Henrietta Barnett, the social reformer and mastermind behind Hampstead Garden Suburb, north London’s curious living experiment in twentieth century town planning.
Read more about Dame Henrietta Barnett.
Professional features, training, and resources
Throughout the past year, RIBA and RIBA Journal have published articles and resources focusing on women’s contributions to architecture and the built environment.
RIBA Journal Rising Stars 2022
In 2022, RIBA Journal’s Rising Star accolade was won by some extraordinary women. Architect at JTP Farhana Jiwa is driven by a desire to make a fairer society through architecture, saying: “I have witnessed the potential for architecture to nurture our collective wellbeing and welfare. My interest therefore lies in creating places that are inclusive and inviting, while fostering a sense of belonging and communal ownership.”
Associate and global wellbeing lead at Grimshaw Georgia Collard-Watson uses her lived experience to improve mental health support in her workplace. Michelle Martin is Director of Live Site Learning CIC, which collaborates with owners of heritage buildings that can be used as learning resources. She said: “As a female architect specialising in conservation, the reality of going on site can be quite daunting. I try to encourage students and young professionals to gain such experience and converse with other members of the industry to build confidence and demystify the process.”
Betty Owoo is Architectural Designer at Be First London and was named Rising Star for making the public realm and architecture open to underrepresented groups. Among many other projects to platform underrepresented voices, she helped set up walking tours in Brixton and Walworth.
Read more about the 2022 RIBA Journal Rising Stars.
RIBA Journal - Spotlighting a female-founded practice
Local strength and community connections have seen female-founded Harrison Stringfellow working with some big architectural names in Liverpool propelling this humane practice to greater things. Published March 2023.
Read the RIBA J article about Harrison Stringfellow.
RIBA Journal - How a women and LGBTQ+ led practice supports employees
This RIBA Journal article features the women and LGBTQ+ led New Practice, who are proactive about inclusion, fostering a culture where all its staff feel able to express themselves freely. Published February 2023.
Read the RIBAJ profile on New Practice.
How seven female-led practices teamed up to win larger projects
Annette Fisher and Cheryl Pilliner-Reeve (founders of FA Global and PR Architects) explain how they formed Unionne, a ‘supergroup’ of female-led practices. Published April 2022.
Read the professional feature on Unionne.
Can a four-day week work for architectural practices?
By allowing more time for obligations disproportionately taken on by women such as childcare and unpaid caring responsibilities, a shorter work week can have a positive impact on gender equality. Sam Goss, Founding Director of Bristol-based Barefoot architects explains how and why his practice made the jump. Published September 2022.
Read the professional feature on four-day weeks.
Events celebrating women
During Women’s History Month 2023, we’re hosting and supporting several events.
Women in Property: Celebration of strong women and allies – webinar
Tuesday 7 March 2023
Our Director of Inclusion and Diversity Robbie Turner chaired a panel discussion hosted by Women in Property. Bringing together four inspirational women from across the built environment, it was a celebration of strong women and their allies.
Find out more about the Women in Property webinar.
Celebrating Women in Architecture – exhibition and talk
Wednesday 8 March 2023, 5.30pm to 9.30pm, Symphony Hall, Broad Street, Birmingham
Join RIBA West Midlands and Birmingham Architectural Association for a showcase of the exceptional local female talent, exhibiting local projects and featuring inspirational speakers.
Book your free place for the Celebrating Women in Architecture event now.
RIBA Bookshop - International Women's Day range
March 2023, 66 Portland Place, London
The RIBA Bookshop has curated a range of titles on women in architecture, available to browse in-store and online.
View the RIBA Bookshop range of International Women's Day books online.
Join us on social media
On social media, we’ll be marking the UN International Women’s Day 2023 campaign DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality on 8 March. This will celebrate the women and girls who are championing the advancement of transformative technology and digital education and explore the impact of the digital gender gap on widening economic and social inequalities. It also spotlights the importance of protecting the rights and safety of women and girls in digital spaces.
Inspire others by showing your support - join us on Twitter @RIBA using #DigitALL #IWD2023.
