Practicing ArchitectureMember Groups & Communities

Sho-Ping, welcome back from the 2011 Women’s Leadership Summit, which was presented by AIA Diversity and Inclusion. You were involved in organizing this conference and the first summit in 2009. What was happening for women practitioners at that time so that a national conference was a logical next step?

I can’t recall a specific chain of events that directly precipitated the first conference. It came about from a more organic and grassroots way. At that time, I did notice several trends that prompted me to explore further.

I was the only female principal at Payette (out of a group of 9). I found that, within the 20 largest firms in Boston, only 15% of the architecture leadership was women. These were disturbing statistics, given that there were 230 female principals registered with the Boston Society of Architects.

Another observation was a noted deficiency of female architect /designers with between 7 to 15 years of experience in my firm. We confronted this trend when we tried to recruit.

Upon further research, we found that after practicing a few years, women had either transitioned out of architecture or transitioned into allied fields. Also, we noted that women were not compelled to return to the profession after starting a family. The percentage of women principals was already low, and we questioned how the effects of this trend would impact developing the next generation of female leadership.

At this same time, I discovered that the percentage of graduates from architecture schools who were women was 50% or higher since the mid-90s. The disparity between the number of women graduates from architecture school and the number of women in leadership positions within architecture firms was disturbing. It eventually led me to seek other interested female principals to discuss this phenomena.

Were you able to bring together this discussion group?

After a mass mailing to the Boston Society of Architects (BSA) women principals, on a blustery Monday morning six years ago, six enthused architects showed up for a roundtable discussion. The conversation went beyond the allotted time. The group felt such a gathering was long overdue. Despite the poor showing, we agreed to forge ahead and establish a community of women leaders. That became the inception of the BSA Women Principals Group (WPG).

At this first meeting of the BSA WPG, we decided that limiting the group to women in leadership roles was vital to having a venue where we could connect, openly share issues, and enhance our collective effectiveness in design and practice. Concurrently, we would support and provide mentorship to the already established BSA Women in Design (WID) group. WID was a supportive group for young and emerging professionals to become the next generation of leaders.

Up until the beginning of the 2009 Women’s Leadership Summit in Chicago, the Women Principals Group met four times a year at different firms with a topic of discussion for each session. The conversations included topics such as firm culture and communication, achieving more diversity, how to manage and inspire design in our practice, gender bias with work assignments and responsibilities, and how to navigate through tough economic times.

And how did this experience eventually lead to the Women’s Leadership Summit?

With the success of our group, we wanted to share this very positive experience with other female leaders across the country. We wanted to know if there were regional differences and subtleties on issues that had come up in our discussions.

• Does the west coast notice the same gap in available professionals with 7 to 15 years of experience?

• How much has diversity parity come under consideration with hiring, lay-offs and promotions in Texas?

• How often do the women in the mid-west hear, “We need a woman for the interview?”

• Are women leaders more focused on the practice or on design across the country?

We hoped that robust discussions to these queries would come out of the goals of the summit, which were:

• raise the profile of women principals and leadership in the profession;

• share and promote the design of women;

• explore new paths to leadership; and

• learn from each other’s issues and challenges.

At the 2009 Women’s Leadership Summit, 180 architects attended. This exceeded our expectations by over 100 attendees. Feedback was overwhelmingly positive and supportive. Based on a post-conference AIA survey, 90% of respondents said they would return for another gathering.

The goal of the summit is to, “ . . . focus on supporting women in leadership by providing a forum to recognize, inform, and champion the work being created by women in architecture.” How have the summits accomplished this goal?

I feel that the 2009 Women’s Leadership Summit in Chicago accomplished this goal as evidenced by the fact that there was enough interest to generate future conferences. We planned for the Women’s Leadership Summit to be held every two years. This year it was in Kansas City, and we haven’t decided on the 2013 location.

Also, we decided to develop a new summit; the Women Leadership Development Summit for the years when the Women’s Leadership Summit was in the planning stages. The first of these summits was held in New York in 2010.

Another goal of the summit’s planning committee is to inspire others to start their own Women Principals Groups within their respective cities or locales. We know that other cities have begun to form their own groups in Phoenix, Denver, and San Diego. We hope that with each successive summit, the number of Women Principals Groups will rise.

I believe this goal will continue to be pertinent for each successive summit no matter the agenda and content. I don’t believe we will ever reach a point where we can say Mission accomplished.

Beyond the summit, what other opportunities exist to champion the work being created by women architects?

I mentioned previously that the summit inspired the formation of regional Women Principals Groups. The summit planning committee hopes that these regional groups will continue the discussions that began during the summits and to provide a regional venue to showcase women's work.

I would also encourage participants within women’s groups to have a strong voice within the local AIA chapters; especially during the annual local conferences. Deliver presentations, panel discussions, or exhibitions with strong compelling content. At our annual Boston Society of Architect’s Build Boston event, the Women in Design group had juried design exhibitions with different thematic focuses. My firm’s internal Women in Design group organized two exhibitions with presentations by illustrious panels of jurors.

It is also important for WID to connect back to AIA during the AIA National Convention. We have not been very pro-active with sharing the outcome of these summits to the larger community. A report out session of the summit could also set the opportunity to engage our male counterparts and share with them our accomplishments, goals, and some of our frustrations. Ultimately, we need to have them be on the same page.

Getting involved with the activities of the Beverly Willis Foundation is another effective avenue. One windfall outcome of the summit was being introduced to Beverly Willis--an amazing human being and one tireless champion of women’s contribution to architecture. Get inspired by seeing her short film, A Girl is a Fellow Here, which is about the 100 women who have worked in the Frank Lloyd Wright studio. Beverly has worked her entire life to promote and document women's contributions to both design and the practice.

Architecture is a profession that seems to have historically been male dominated. At the point you decided to pursue your career in architecture, what were the main obstacles you experienced?

There was the usual suspect: male intolerance and disbelief that women could be fit for the profession within both the classroom and the practice. Surprisingly though, it was only a few handful who harbored such attitudes.

Another obstacle is the general public perception that women architects are mostly involved with interiors. This myth is very prevalent today and even exists within the profession.

The most effective way that I overcame these obstacles was to believe in myself, and to sustain the willpower to overcome them in order to achieve my goals. This attitude has never left me.

Did a woman architect mentor you? What about this mentoring relationship was valuable to you?

I have been in the profession for over 30 years. Unfortunately, for most of us in this age bracket, during our developing years, women architect mentors were true rarities. I did not have a woman architect mentor early on, but I had very effective male architect mentors and role models during the developmental phase of my career.

In recent years, I feel very fortunate to have found multiple female mentors for guidance and advice. Access to a wealth of experiences and resources from within my peer group was another unscripted outcome of the Women Principals Group.

AIA Membership
Seize the opportunity
and see what happens.

Renew Early. Get a Free
Continuing
Education Course.

Renew your AIA membership
by December 31, and you will
receive one free continuing
education course from AIA
Virtual Convention, which
offers online education
anytime, anywhere.

But Wait; There’s More.

Renew by December 31,
2011, and you will also be
entered in a drawing to
win one of
five free iPad2s.

Thanks For Your
Membership.

In order to efficiently handle
the renewals of nearly 80,000
members, we ask that you
renew your AIA
membership by January 15,
2012.

AIA Strategic Initiative
Diversity and Inclusion

Web Page

Email: diversityandinclusion@aia.org

Women in Architecture and
Design
Member-Created
Community
Online community to support
a national and international
network of women in the
profession. The goal is to
share knowledge, interests,
professional advice and
support development of the
next generation of the
profession. [more]

Mentorship
The AIA encourages its
members to nurture fellow
professionals as they progress
through the stages of their
career. [more]

Member Spotlight

Sho-Ping Chin, FAIA, LEED AP
Principal

Payette
290 Congress Street, Fifth
Floor
Boston, MA 02210-1005

Phone: (617) 895-1000

Web: www.payette.com