WOMEN WHO BUILD             la Mujer Construye

Introduction:
- Women in contemporary architecture are making progress.
- They have been and are more often involved in many ways.
- They are designers, planners, administrators or educators. Some run practices of their own, others with their architect husbands like myself.
- My husband and I, have established in 1980 “Erga group architects & consulting engineers”  

Examples:
- As pioneers women architects I would like to mention
- Louise Blanchard. First woman to be accepted into the AIA in 1888 .
- Louise Blanchard rejected the pigeonholing of women into house design, which she knew from her experience to be the worst paid and most frustrating job of any architect.
- Julia Morgan the first woman to pass the entrance exam at Ecole des Beaux Arts de Paris.
- Julia Morgan commands respect and interest as a pioneer female in the field and as a brilliant architect.
- In Lebanon Anahid Moshayan  is the first woman architect 1957.

Topics of discussion:
- When we talk about women architects several questions arise:
- Is architecture a man’s job?
- Does gender play a role in our profession?
- What are the problems and the advantages of being women architect?
- What are the Challenges and our Expectations?
- Further steps.

Inequality in the 21^st century.
- Is it a man’s job?
- Statistics show that women architects in general are fewer.
- In USA: only 10% of licensed architects in firms are women.
- In UK: the proportion of women and men architects is also 10%.
- In the UK: the percentage in 1908 and 1989 was 9 %. Now it’s 10%, at this rate parity will be achieved by the year 3000.
- In Lebanon: We have a greater proportion. 17%.

Architecture is a fine art
- Architectural Design like any other artistic design is similar in spirit to the composition of poetry.
- Or to the composition and performance of music.
- Are women less poetic or sensitive than men? Is there any difference between the way men and women design? If we look to a project can we tell if the architect is a man or a woman? Please take a look to the following examples and try to guess which one is done by a woman and which one is done by a man.
- Examples.

Gender and architecture
- Architecture is a profession serving the people for whom it works.
- It needs to operate within a collaborative framework. It’s teamwork. Behind a master architect, man or woman, there is always a team of architects, engineers and designers many of whom are female.
- Therefore equal opportunities should be offered according to talent, skills and abilities.

Problems that women face
- Women are still under represented in professional organizations. Ex: In our order of Engineers, there is only one woman in the board.
- Women are absent in high profile roles.
- Women’s contributions are not sufficiently recognized.
- On the practical side, Women are still not easily accepted on sites.
- Sometimes women still have to prove themselves to some contractors and subcontractors.

Advantages
 - Some clients, especially females are more comfortable with women architects.
- The sensitivity, intuition and communication level are usually higher.
- Women have more team oriented management style.

Challenges
- Design is not only about houses, it should go beyond buildings.
- Design must be a part of peoples’ social process. Especially in our country and the Middle East region, women have to take part in programs that transform society.
- A more open world is inviting and welcoming women we only have to collaborate.
- The globalizations have already dissolved all differences: physical, social and cultural.

Achievements
- Women architects have gained more acceptance as professionals.
- They have established themselves and confirmed their competence.
- They have given New input for a new architecture more human and more artistic.
- They have succeeded in emphasizing the balance between   the interior and the exterior of the structures they create.

Expectations
- Women want to be considered just as architects.
- Their work to be read on its own merits.
- Design Standard to be highered.
- Professional image further validated.
- More inclusion in high profile roles.
- The more we see the female architect as a powerful influence, the more young women will be encouraged to join the profession and will be able to stay there despite the pressures.

Further steps
- Women architects to become more aware of their own achievements.
- Become more aware of each others’ work.
- More exhibitions, publications and public exposure and talks.
- Professional contacts and friendships, creative exchange of ideas.
- New kind of professionals who can intervene and be more effective.
- More women taking strong creative leadership roles in architecture.

Personal experience
- As a woman architect I really can’t complain. I never felt discriminated, when I was a student nor after. Only good things happened to me in the profession. I have the luck to be within  Erga Group.
- Erga Group is a big team of women and men architects, designers and engineers.
- Women architects constitute 26% of the design department; have always been very effective and active, as senior and junior architects, and I know that they feel like me. We all have always been very appreciated & respected by our male colleagues.
- Erga projects overview.
- Men & Women Architects in Erga.

Conclusion
To conclude, I’ll cite Louis Sullivan theory on designing:
“ ONE CANNOT LEARN TO CREATE SOMETHING OF BEAUTY; INSTEAD ONE MUST BECOME THE KIND OF PERSON THAT CAN CREATE BEAUTY”.

Randa Gebrayel, lebanesse architect.