Gender Inequality in the world of architecture and construction
- May 8, 2025
- 3 min read
Throughout history, women have continuously faced barriers and issues, such as sexism, within the workplace. In the UK, only 31% of women are architects, despite 50% of architectural graduates being female (Urbanist Architecture. 2025). Therefore, women are being driven out of the workplace due to institutional obstacles that they face (Urbanist Architecture. 2025). This blog post will address the gender inequality in the world of architecture and construction, the issues that women face in these workplaces, examples of female architects who overcame gender inequality and things that we can do to help these issues moving forward.
From childhood, boys are encouraged to play with building sets, while girls are steered towards dolls and dresses (Urbanist Architecture. 2025). As a society, we steer young girls away from experimenting with different career paths and hobbies, in fear of giving them too much freedom or upsetting some people. Women in the architecture and construction industries are greeted by sexual harassment or sexism at work and face low wages, long working hours, unfriendly/inflexible hours towards domestic/ family time, stressful working conditions, dismissal and glass ceilings (Savitri, R. T., 2022). Some women are forced to move to part-time or quit if they want to start a family- which does not provide a supportive or calming working environment (Urbanist Architecture. 2025). In addition, the median pay gap in architecture, as a female, is 15.2%, but in some cases can reach almost 20%- in the construction industry, as a woman, you can face a median pay gap of 23% compared to your male counterpart (Urbanist Architecture. 2025). All of these issues make it really difficult to try to convince young women to begin a career in these male-dominant and sexist industries.
Although, women have faced many issues and problems within the architecture and construction workplace, it hasn't stopped some strong females from pursuing successful and inspiring careers in these industries. In the 17th century, Lady Elizabeth Wilbraham was the UK's first female architect and was believed to have anonymously designed around 400 buildings, including her family home: Weston Park (see image 2 above) (Sculptform, 2025). Women weren't allowed to practice art, and Lady Elizabeth wasn't allowed to be seen at construction sites; however, this didn't phase her, it simply made her more productive and she averaged around 8 projects per year (Sculptform, 2025). Another influential architect was Sophia Hayden (1863-1953), who was the first woman to earn an architectural degree from MIT (Sculptform, 2025). At 21 years old, she won a competition to design the Women's Building for the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago- despite the amount of work she had put into this project, she was payed only a fraction compared to her male counterparts and received excessive micromanagement throughout the project (Sculptform, 2025). On this occasion, all of the stress had caused her to have a breakdown and be admitted to a sanitarium- showing the extents to what women had to face in order to simply try and do what they enjoyed (Sculptform, 2025).
As a society, we have improved the way in which we treat women in predominantly male-dominated industries; however, there is still a lot we can do to ensure that there is no gender inequality in the architecture and construction industries. For instance, equitable hiring practices can be put in place, such as using blind CVs; adopting a zero-harassment policy with harsh consequences; developing family-friendly policies and ensuring there are more women in leadership positions are only a few things that can help the situation (Urbanist Architecture, 2025). According to RIBA in 2024, they are putting in place 10 actions to address gender inequality in the workplace- some of these include: collaborating across industries, offering an active allyship for parenting (both paternal and maternal leave), and promoting a grading system for promotions (where milestones are required to move forwards in our career).
By implementing some of these actions in the workplace, we can create a safe and welcoming environment for women to work and thrive in. Looking at past influential architects can help us to realise that we are in a better place now, compared to these women who had to overcome so much in order to simply follow their passion- therefore, it is our duty to ensure that there is gender equality across all industries, not just architecture and construction.
References:
Kneschke, R. (2011). Gender Gap with men on one side of abyss and woman on the other. Shutterstock. https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/gender-gap-men-on-one-side-89941735
RIBA. (2024). Ten actions to address gender inequity in the built environment. https://www.architecture.com/knowledge-and-resources/knowledge-landing-page/addressing-gender-inequity-in-the-built-environment?srsltid=AfmBOorzGBdkEdK_SGNI7Wefuk0SoUulen0twwnUlXcBeeNRfsTwA9F9
Savitri, R. T. (2022). Gender Equality Issues in The Architecture Profession. Journal of Development and Integrated Engineering, 1(2), 111-118.
Sculptform. (2025). Women of Architecture throughout history. https://sculptform.com/blogs/women-of-architecture-throughout-history/
Urbanist Architecture. (2025, March 8). Breaking the bias in architecture: Gender gap in architecture and construction. https://urbanistarchitecture.co.uk/gender-gap-architecture/
Weston Park. (n.a.) Weston Park: In Pictures. https://www.historichouses.org/house/weston-park/visit/
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