Guides for Equitable Practice
The Guides for Equitable Practice use real-world-derived best practices, relevant research, and other tools to help foster equitable, diverse, and inclusive firm cultures and work environments.
Building a more equitable future
Increasingly, architects and design professionals will be called to lead efforts in finding solutions to many of our society’s most pressing issues. To meet these challenges, as well as the unknown ones ahead, we must have the talent, passion, and creativity of a diverse cohort of students, professionals, and leaders.
The Guides for Equitable Practice, done in partnership with the University of Washington, the University of Minnesota, and The American Institute of Architects’ Equity and the Future of Architecture Committee (EQFA), are a vital part of AIA’s long-term commitment to lead efforts that ensure equity, diversity, and inclusion in architecture—that the architecture profession is as diverse as the nation we serve.
These guides will help you make the business and professional case for ensuring that your organization meets the career development, professional environment, and cultural awareness expectations of current and future employees and clients.
Each chapter includes real-world-derived best practices, relevant research, and other tools to help you address a variety of employment and personnel issues about equity, diversity, and inclusion. Each guide begins with a baseline explanation of its topic, conveying the knowledge and language required to have meaningful conversations with individuals at any level of your firm. The user-friendly layout and short, consumable sections are designed so you can find the content you need easily and quickly.
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Chapters–Guides for Equitable Practice
The guides make the moral, business, ethical, and societal cases for equity in architecture and provide key insights to help individuals, firms, and other organizations build equity in architecture.
Translating relevant research into actionable practices, each guide defines core topics before presenting information through several lenses:
- Why is the topic important?
- What does it look like when a group works toward equity goals?
- What legal and regulatory issues should you account for?
- What questions can you use to appraise your progress?
- How can you act to make your firm and the profession more equitable?
Each guide contains an Assess section that provides prompts with which you can evaluate your individual, interpersonal, and organizational improvements in equity.
Guide topics include intercultural competence, workplace culture, compensation, recruitment and retention, negotiation, mentoring and sponsorship, advancing careers, engaging community, and measuring progress.
New Additions to the Introduction
- The concept of justice added with equal emphasis alongside equity, diversity, and inclusion.
- Greater grounding in current events and the concepts of anti-racism and active engagement.
- New section on language and terms related to equitable practice.
Chapter 1: Intercultural Competence
Intercultural competence—the ability to function effectively across cultures—affects performance at all organizational levels. This guide outlines the importance of increasing intercultural competence and recommends how to boost it while reducing bias against people with non-dominant identities.
You'll learn architecture’s challenges—including white male–dominated structures, the hero-architect trope, and extreme criticism—clash with collaborative practices, work-life balance, and practitioners’ diverse backgrounds. This guide covers questions to assess organizations’ intercultural competence levels along with concrete steps individuals and firms can take to create a level playing field and effect structural change.
New additions to Chapter 1
- Increased distinction between gender-based and race-based issues.
- Augmented discussion of structural inequities and mechanisms by which dominant culture is perpetuated.
- Expanded concept of intersectionality and how it informs ally-ship.
Chapter 2: Workplace Culture
This guide describes components of a strong, healthy workplace culture, details the field’s dominant patterns, and outlines the concept of architecture’s cultural iceberg—made up of objective culture (above the surface) and subjective culture (usually below the surface).
You’ll learn how workplace culture affects individuals, firms, and the profession—from retention to strategic planning and perception of the field. This guide also contains the legal aspects of harassment, including individuals’ responsibilities, questions to assess organizations’ workplace culture, and ways to improve your own organizations’ workplace culture.
New additions to Chapter 2
- Additional guidance on how firms might respond to the heightened drive for social change, including specifically the alignment (or misalignment) between public statements and actual workplace culture.
- Description of how firms both shape culture and are shaped by it.
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Chapter 3: Compensation
Architecture’s compensation issues arise from inequitable opportunities, valuation of work, and pay practices. Removing compensation gaps supports talent recruitment, development, and retention—along with the growth of individuals, firms, and the profession. This guide discusses wage disparities in architecture, including their origins and impacts. It establishes how compensation equity spans four dimensions (transparency, alignment, compliance, and fairness) and provides questions to consider when assessing organizations’ compensation.
You’ll also learn the legal factors related to unfair, discriminatory compensation and steps to increase compensation equity.
New additions to Chapter 3
- Greater focus on employees' perceptions of justice and equity in a firm in connection with information about wage and opportunity gaps.
- Emphasis on changes that reverse historical patterns of disadvantage for certain groups and at the same time benefit all employees.
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Chapter 4: Recruitment & Retention
Attracting and retaining talent is vital for every firm and the profession as a whole. Given the importance of keeping quality employees, this guides outlines how to emphasize equitable practices during recruitment and retention. It covers how inequity affects employees, how to improve quality of life and address pinch points in the workplace, and ways to assess hiring and promotion bias and microaggressions.
Learn how to maintain a diverse workforce and compliance with laws governing recruitment and promotion. This guide includes concrete steps individuals and firms can take to increase fairness, build healthy pipelines, and boost retention.
New additions to Chapter 4
- Additional guidance on the challenges of recruiting Black, Indigenous, and people of color for employment in firms with majority white leadership.
- Expanded information about anticipating mentoring needs to "onlys" and new ways to consider the concept of belonging.
- New focus on subtle biases that may limit leadership paths for people who have been historically underrepresented.
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Chapter 5: Negotiation
How can you ensure the negotiation process is collaborative, imbued with trust, and produces satisfying solutions for everyone involved, while maintaining equity? This guide outlines skills architects can develop to act inclusively and equitably during negotiations.
Learn how to act more equitably and ethically in building a healthy workplace, negotiating compensation on behalf of yourself or your firm, and navigating conflict. This guide includes ways to assess compliance with laws and how organizations fare in building equitable negotiation skills and integrity.
New additions to Chapter 5
- Deeper discussions around the role of power and culture in negotiation, including awareness of how to limit their influence on bias.
- New suggestions for taking risks in order to disrupt historical patterns of inequity.
- Additional information on the benefits of negotiation skills to advance firm goals with clients and to advocate for communities.
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Chapter 6: Mentorship & Sponsorship
Mentorship and sponsorship, when one uses personal capital to promote a protégé, can prove crucial to individuals’ careers, and can help make workplaces more diverse and inclusive. These relationships can help individuals achieve power, influence, promotions, and increased compensation. You'll assess the qualities of being a mentor, mentee, sponsor, or protégé and the structure and effectiveness of mentorship programs.
You'll learn what equitable and inclusive mentorship and sponsorship look like, abiding by harassment and discrimination laws, maintaining ethical relationships, being an equitable mentor, mentee, and sponsor, and encouraging a culture of mentorship and sponsorship.
New additions to Chapter 6
- New emphasis on how intersection of race and gender creates complex layers to consider in ally-ship and cross-identity mentor pairings.
- Revisions highlight reciprocity and appreciation of asymmetries in mentorship and sponsorship.
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Chapter 7: Advancing Careers
It’s critical that responsibility for career advancement extends beyond individuals and is addressed with systems, policies, and a workplace culture that serves everyone. This guide details the importance of approaching career advancement as a shared responsibility between employee and employer; and examines equity issues in the workplace. It covers how social, cultural, and economic forces may steer individuals toward or away from certain pathways and how race and gender influence career progression.
You'll learn how firms and institutions can help support career advancement equitably by clarifying criteria for promotion, supporting networks, changing workplace culture from career ladder to lattice, and providing access to training and development.
New additions to Chapter 7
- Expanded text on historical and current challenges faced by Black, Indigenous, and people of color, with more information on holistically supporting employees affected by events outside of the office.
- Greater emphasis on the importance of employees' perception of support, including suggestions for limiting the impact of microaggressions and the importance of communicating boundaries.
- Clarification of the distinct values of networks, affinity groups, and mentors.
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Chapter 8: Engaging Community
An architect's work affects communities, respectfully engaging with them and adopting solutions created in partnership is imperative. Such engagement leads to a more equitable built environment that flourishes. This guide notes that engaging communities has challenges resulting from years of inequitable practices in architecture and beyond, largely due to structural racism. With greater equity, the profession improves its impact and increases its value to society.
New additions to Chapter 8
- Description of recently-increased expectations for community engagement.
- Expanded ideas about the relevance of historic inequities to current challenges.
- Additional suggestions for preparing architects for reciprocal engagement, including attention to critical race theory and environmental justice.
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Chapter 9: Measuring Progress
True support of equity, diversity, and inclusion requires being able to measure progress. This guide outlines a number of measurable factors, including increased commitment to equitable practices from leaders, decrease in pay disparities, and less evidence of unconscious bias.
New additions to Chapter 9
- Additional context to help firms question the value placed by dominant culture on quantitative measurement as more valid that qualitative metrics; suggestions for countering that bias.
- Sharpened focus on the relationship between equity goals, firm values, and metrics.
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Supplement: Justice in the Built Environment
AIA Guides for Equitable Practice supplementary edition
Beyond equity, diversity, and inclusion is a farther-reaching goal of justice: systems and processes that reverse long-standing injustices and that go beyond merely what is fair. In the creation of the built environment, justice can take the form of just processes (process that involve people who have experienced harm) and just outcomes (spaces that are safe, welcoming, and worthy of the beings who inhabit them).
This supplementary edition is intended to help designers convey the opportunities, benefits, and challenges of making justice a deliberate aim of the building process. It includes more hands-on interactive exercises, with worksheets and contextual timelines that can be used within project teams and with clients or partners.
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Supplement: Equity in Architectural Education
AIA Guides for Equitable Practice supplementary edition
Office and school cultures feed and reinforce each other, and long-standing traditions, viewpoints, and biases in academia are strong. Attaining an increase in diversity and creating a welcoming culture for all within academia accelerates progress towards equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in each sector of the profession.
This supplementary edition asserts that organizational culture is the basis for achieving goals of EDI in each sector of the profession. Together, the guides and this supplement reflect the many ways in which EDI goals and means can be integrated into professional practice and the academy alike.
Resources – Guides for Equitable Practice
Diversity in the Profession of Architecture Executive Summary—AIA (2016)
Summary of a survey that examined diversity in architecture, including perceptions of representation, factors impacting representation, reasons people leave the field, and job satisfaction.
Equity by Design Metrics: Key Findings for the 2016 Equity in Architecture Survey—Equity by Design (2016)
Summary of findings from the most recent Equity by Design's Equity in Architecture Survey, focusing on career dynamics (factors that affect perceptions throughout a career in architecture) and career pinch points (personal and professional milestones that affect career progression).
Parlour Guides to Equitable Practice—Parlour (2004)
A set of eleven guides to equitable practice focusing on gender equality in architecture in Australia: 1) Pay Equity, 2) Long Hours, 3) Part-Time Work, 4) Flexibility, 5) Recruitment, 6) Career Progression, 7) Negotiation, 8) Career Break, 9) Leadership, 10) Mentoring, 11) Registration.
American Association of People with Disabilities
The work of this advocacy organization includes information and resources on employment.
Diversity Matters—Vivian Hunt, Dennis Layton, and Sara Prince—McKinsey (2015)
Business case draws connection between diversity, performance, and increased profitability.
How to Get Men Involved with Gender Parity Initiatives—Elad N. Sherf and Subra Tangirala—HBR (2017)
Asserts that men avoid involvement in gender-parity efforts, although they have relevant experience and can benefit directly; encourages positive, supportive action. Broadly applicable to the creation of equity initiatives that include stakeholders beyond those most directly affected.
Only Skin Deep: Re-Examining the Business Case for Diversity—Deloitte Point of View (2011)
Aimed at organizations interested in the business case for diversity. Expands the demographic definition of diversity to include the diversity of ideas that comes from multiple backgrounds and experiences.
Out and Equal Workplace Advocates
Nonprofit dedicated to LGBTQ workplace equality.
Why Diversity Matters—Catalyst (2013)
Summary of Catalyst diversity studies makes the business case for diversity: improving financial performance, leveraging talent, reflecting the marketplace, building reputation, and group performance.
Researches many topics related to diversity, equity, inclusion in general and in relation to specific underrepresented groups. Resources to help companies better understand the issues; case studies and tools to help with implementing changes.
Provides tools and resources around the topics of women's leadership, families, and bias.
Offers many tool kits and worksheets for individuals and organizations to interrupt bias.
Wide array of tools to help organizations support, advance, and retain women employees: parallels in engineering and law.
CEOs Action for Diversity and Inclusion
CEO members pledge to advance diversity and inclusion. Actions taken by each company and the outcomes are cataloged.
Variety of articles with perspectives and insights on business and leadership topics. The company pioneered equitable practices.
Collection of tools and services to assist companies in data collection and analytics, including culture, employee engagement, and diversity.
Succinct articles summarize research on business topics including equity, diversity, and inclusion from a variety of sources.
Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity
General overview of implicit bias and comprehensive annual reviews of current research into implicit bias across many fields.
Focused on empowering women to achieve their goals through organizing women's peer groups, public awareness, and education.
Research looks at issues, attitudes, and trends through social science research.
Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM)
Thorough array of resources for any size employer, tools include legal compliance and a variety of human resources topics.
Designing for Diversity: Gender, Race, and Ethnicity in the Architectural Profession—Kathryn H. Anthony (2001)
Surveys and interviews of four hundred architects looking at factors that lead to discrimination and how lack of diversity hurts the professions. Recommendations for ways to change. This is a key foundational text that remains relevant today.
Structural Inequality: Black Architects in the United States—Victoria Kaplan (2006)
Voices of twenty Black architects describing lifelong discrimination, marginalization, and pervasive racism in the profession, as well as their ways of navigating. Book addresses larger structural issues in architecture that currently make disadvantage inevitable.
Chapter 1: Intercultural Competence
A Conversation on Race—New York Times (2017)
Series of videos featuring conversations with people of many different races to demonstrate a variety of experiences of people in the United States.
Everyday Bias: Further Explorations into How the Unconscious Mind Shapes Our World at Work—Howard Ross—Cook Ross (2014)
Overview on what unconscious bias is, why it happens, and why it is important, including research that has been done on ways unconscious bias is prevalent in the workplace. The second half of the report has ways to recognize and address unconscious bias.
Implicit Bias Review and Annual Reports—Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity (2016)
General overview of implicit bias and comprehensive annual reviews of current research across difference fields. Includes research in assessment and mitigation.
Tool kits and worksheets for individuals and organizations to interrupt bias.
Building Culturally Competent Organizations—University of Kansas
Part of the Community Toolbox, a set of chapters that provide actionable steps to improve community-building skills. Chapter 27 focuses on cultural competence; section 7 describes what a culturally competent organization is and lists several ways to build cultural competence.
An implicit association or attitude that operates beyond our control and awareness, informs our perception of a person or social group, and can influence our decision-making and behavior toward the target of the bias.
How people attempt to combat and minimize the impact of negative bias on themselves.
Offers alternatives to harmful language in the workplace that reinforces negative stereotypes and hampers individual authenticity. Recommended language regarding race and ethnicity, LGBTQ, women, and men.
Series of infographics, overviews, and ways to combat unconscious bias.
Diversity Toolkit: A Guide to Discussing Identity, Power and Privilege—University of Southern California (2017)
Group activities to facilitate discourse about diversity challenges: identity, power, and privilege.
Implicit Association Tests—Project Implicit
Several different categories of implicit association tests for individuals to evaluate their level of implicit bias. Some categories include race, gender, disability and sexuality.
Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI)—Mitchell Hammer
Assessment of intercultural competence. Test evaluates mindsets on a scale from monocultural to intercultural: denial, polarization, minimization, acceptance, adaptation.
The 6-D Model of National Culture—Geert Hofstede
Six fundamental dimensions of cultural differences between nations. A useful framework for diagnosing difference and conflict and bridging gaps.
Chapter 2: Workplace Culture
Employee Job Satisfaction and Engagement: Optimizing Organizational Culture for Success—Society for Human Resource Management (2015)
Based on a survey of six hundred people, the research summarizes the key factors that lead to job satisfaction in the following categories: career development, employee relationships in management, compensation and benefits, and work environment.
Research, certification, publications, and speakers on the characteristics of "great places to work" for all.
The Research is Clear: Long Hours Backfire for People and for Companies—Harvard Business Review—Sarah Green Carmichael (2002)
Studies show working longer hours does not increase productivity and leads to high stress levels and poorer health. In addition, overworked employees have more difficulty interacting with each other, make more mistakes, and generally lose sight of the bigger picture. All of these together reveal a point beyond which working more hours eliminates the benefits.
Room at the Top? Sexism and the Star System in Architecture—Denise Scott Brown (1989)
A personal account illustrating the legacy of architecture's "star system" that attributes designs, ideas, and work to the most famous leader in a firm. Scott Brown writes, "The Star system, which sees the firm as a pyramid with a designer on top, has little to do with today's complex relations in architecture and construction." Still relevant to how the profession is seen, how firms are structured, and how architecture is evaluated.
Sexual Harassment: What Employers Need to Know—Catalyst (2018)
Infographics that show how employers can address sexual harassment, including guidelines for preparation, prevention, and response. Also includes recommendations to address workplace culture issues surrounding sexual harassment.
What Do I Need to Know about Workplace Harassment—US Department of Labor
Guidance information for compliance with sexual harassment laws, including definitions and reporting of sexual harassment, when harassment violates the law, and how to report.
Workplace Harassment Resources—Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM)
A collection of resources for companies; includes guides for compliance and policies, training, investigation, and research.
Organizational Culture and Leadership—Edgar Schein (5th ed., 2016)
Foundational text addressing the elements of culture and the role of leadership in creating change at different stages of organizational life.
Chapter 3: Compensation
EQxD Metrics: Pay Equity Series (3 parts)—Annelise Pitts—Equity by Design (2017)
Three-part series reviews the salary data from the Equity by Design Survey. Part 1 describes the state of the pay gap in architecture. Part 2 discusses the primary forces that affect the wage gap. Part 3 addresses ways to close the pay gap through policies and practices.
AIA Compensation & Benefits Report 2023—AIA
Tool compares compensation data for thirty-nine architecture firm positions. Looks at trends in architectural compensation and what incentives are being offered to retain talent.
Calculator uses salary data from the compensation tool to provide mean and median salaries for various architectural positions, considering geographic location and firm revenue.
Offers many tool kits and worksheets for individuals and organizations to interrupt bias. See their tool kits for compensation and performance evaluations.
Interrupting Bias in Performance Evaluations—Women's Leadership Edge
Webinar that gives examples of how bias affects performance evaluations, which can be used to determine promotions and merit increases, and gives guidelines for developing a review process that eliminates bias.
Managing Pay Equity—SHRM (2018)
Provides an overview of the pay gap and laws related to pay equity and offers in-depth guidelines for reviewing pay policies for fairness and for improving policies.
re:Work Guide: Structure and Check for Pay Equity—Google
Several-part guide for analyzing pay procedures - starts with an overview of pay gap and high-level goals organizations should have regarding pay policies, then provides specific guidelines for reviewing and adjusting policies that may be inequitable.
The Simple Truth about the Gender Pay Gap—AAUW (2018)
Defines the gender pay gap and what causes it and shows how it affects different demographic groups. Suggests ways to address the gap for different groups of people: individuals, employers, and the government. Offers guidelines to address gender-based discrimination at work.
Graduating to a Pay Gap—Christianne Corbett and Catherine Hill—AAUW (2012)
Study of the wage gap between men and women college graduates working full time one year after graduating. Discusses the impact of this immediate pay gap and the student loan debt burden it places on women.
How to Achieve Gender Equality in Pay—The Milken Institute Review—Claudia Goldin (2015)
Examines the wage gap between genders, factoring for education, age, experience, and industry. Looks at how different job structures affect the gap. Conclusion: the amount of time worked in a week affects hourly rate; those who work longer hours tend to make more money per hour as well.
The Fatherhood Bonus and the Motherhood Penalty: Parenthood and the Gender Gap in Pay—Thirdway—Michelle J Budig (2014)
Analyzes the impact of having a family on the salaries of mend and women: men's salaries tend to increase with each child while women's tend to decrease.
Chapter 4: Recruitment & Retention
Disabilities in the Workplace: Recruitment, Accommodation, and Retention—Linda Davis—AAOHN Journal (July 1, 2005)
Detailed guidance and resources for employers seeking to employ and retain workers with both temporary and permanent disabilities.
Diversity in the Profession of Architecture Executive Summary—AIA (2016)
Summary of perceptions of factors that affect the choice of architecture as a profession, job satisfaction, and retention.
How Can Architecture Schools Increase Diversity?—Melinda D. Anderson—Curbed (2017)
Recommendations include increasing diversity of faculty, providing mentorship and inclusion programs that support students, addressing cost concerns, and partnering with local schools to increase the visibility of architecture as a career option.
Identifying & Interrupting Bias in Hiring—Bias Interrupters
Resources include a worksheet that lists common bias types, how they arise in hiring, and how to prevent their influence; and a guide on structuring the hiring process to prevent bias at all stages.
In Search of a Less Sexist Hiring Process—Harvard Business Review (2014)
An overview of why women are less likely to be hired than equally qualified men and how businesses should adjust hiring practices to be more inclusive.
re:Work Guide: Hiring—Google
Covers aspects of hiring, including recruiting, reviewing resumes, and interviews; offers suggestions for making the hiring process fairer for candidates with different backgrounds and ways to improve the experience for job candidates.
Scholarships and Career Resources for Architects of Color—Patrick Sisson—Curbed (2018)
List of programs working to help increase diversity in architecture; includes youth, college-level, and professional organization resources and programs.
16 Architects of Color Speak Out About the Industry's Race Problem—Asad Syrkett, Tanay Warerker, and Patrick Sisson—Curbed (2017)
Interviewees discuss barriers they have faced as architects of color at all levels and offer recommendations to improve the diversity in the profession.
EQxD Metrics: Finding the Right Fit—Annelise Pitts—Equity by Design (2017)
Survey results from 2016 show the perception of workplace-culture fit by different groups in architecture. Fit is identified as the most determinant factor in why people stay or leave a job.
The Formula for a Winning Company Culture—Tim Wolock and Chris Martin—Payscale (2016)
Identifies key factors for retention and improving employee satisfaction.
Measuring the Meaning of Meaningful Work: Development and Validation of the Comprehensive Meaningful Work Scale (SMWS)—Marjolein Lips-Wiersma and Sarah Wright—Group and Organization Management (2012)
Provides a multi-dimensional scale for measuring meaningful work.
Overcoming the Implementation Gap: How 20 Leading Companies are Making Flexibility Work—Duesen, James, Gill, McKechnie—Boston College Center for Work and Family (2007)
Offering flexible work is a way to increase recruitment and retention. This report outlines five steps for developing and implementing a flexibility policy and case studies of companies who offer flexible options.
Chapter 5: Negotiation
Detailed guidance for successfully navigating employment terms.
Do Women Avoid Salary Negotiations? Evidence from a Large Scale Natural Field Experiment—National Bureau of Economic Research—Andreas Leibbrandt and John A. List (2012)
Studies have shown that women are less likely to initiate negotiations unless a job listing specifically notes that the pay is negotiable. Indicating that negotiation is allowed is one way to attract more diverse employees.
Getting the Short End of the Stick: Racial Bias in Salary Negotiations—MIT Sloan Management Review—Morela Hernandez and Derek R. Avery (2016)
Review of both gender and racial differences in salary negotiation. A study on how white versus black job applicants negotiated as well as the effect of the biases, expectations, and perceptions of the employers on the results of the negotiations. Proposes ways companies can address racial bias in negotiations.
No Salary Negotiations Allowed—SHRM—Joanne Sammer (2015)
Explains the pros and cons of implementing a no-negotiation policy for hiring; includes alternative options to ensure an equal playing field for negotiation.
Social Incentives for Gender Differences in the Propensity to Initiate Negotiations: Sometimes It Does Hurt to Ask—Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes—Hannah Riley Bowles, Linda Babcock, Lei Lai (2005)
Investigates gender differences in willingness to initiate compensation negotiations and outcomes, including differing perceptions of men and women who initiate negotiation.
Harvard Law School Program on Negotiation
Downloadable free reports on a range of relevant topics, including negotiation skills, salary negotiation, BATNA, business negotiations, deal making, conflict resolution, and mediation.
Negotiation Skills—Queensland Government
Lists tips and strategies for negotiation and lays out the process for a negotiation, including how to proceed when a negotiation fails.
Negotiation Advice for Women—Lean In—Ashleigh Shelby Rosette
Series of four videos with tips on how to approach a negotiation, including both general advice and tips for counteracting the specific stereotypes that women face in negotiating.
A wide array of tools to help organizations support, advance, and retain women, with parallels in engineering and law.
Architect's Essentials of Contract Negotiation—American Institute of Architects, John Wiley & Sons—Ava J. Abramovitz (2002)
Fundamental handbook of contract negotiation and long-term implementation; addresses the specific role of the architect in relation to all contractual parties.
Ask for It: How Women Can Use Negotiation to Get What They Really Want. Linda Babcock and Sarah Laschever. Random House 2008
Concrete, step-by-step guidance for people who, because of the double bind, have to consciously moderate how they conduct themselves in a negotiation.
Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement without Giving In, Revised Edition—Roger Fisher, William Ury, Bruce Patton (2011)
Classic text based on the work of the Harvard Negotiation Project offers a method for negotiating business and personal situations and conflicts.
[Heading] Negotiation gap and double standards
Women Don't Ask: The High Cost of Avoiding Negotiation—and Positive Strategies for Change—Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever (2003)
Enduring, quintessential, research-based guidance for people (not only women) who wish to develop skill and confidence at negotiating.
Chapter 6: Mentorship & Sponsorship
Reverse Mentoring: What Is It and Why It Is Beneficial—Lisa Quast—Forbes (2011)
Discusses the mutually beneficial relationship of mentoring, including the advantages of mentoring relationships with people who are different from you.
Sponsoring Women to Success—Catalyst—Heather Foust-Cummings, Sarah Dinolfo, and Jennifer Kohler (2011)
Study of executives and high performers outlines the benefits and characteristics of sponsorship from the standpoint of the sponsor, protégé, and organization.
Why You Need a Sponsor - Not a Mentor - To Fast-Track your Career—Jenna Goudreau—Business Insider (2013)
Explains the difference between mentorship and sponsorship and the importance of having a sponsor for career advancement. Lists tips for finding sponsors and being your own advocate.
Making Mentoring Work—Sarah Dinolfo and Julie S. Nugent—Catalyst (2010)
Guide to what makes an effective mentoring program and how a formalized program can address barriers to mentorship for women and people of color.
Creating Successful Mentoring Programs—A Catalyst Guide (2002)
Step-by-step guidance for developing a formal mentoring program. Appropriate for larger firms and for AIA chapters and components to help design mentoring programs useful for smaller firms, sole practitioners, and architecture professionals working in other fields.
Wide array of tools to help organizations support, advance, and retain women, with parallels in engineering and law.
Creating a Mentoring Culture: The Organization's Guide—Lois J. Zachary—John Wiley and Sons (2005)
Resource for designing and implementing mentorship that is embedded throughout an organization.
Forget a Mentor, Find a Sponsor: The New Way to Fast-Track Your Career—Sylvia Ann Hewlett—Harvard Business School Publishing (2013)
Comprehensive, Seven-step road map to finding and succeeding in a sponsor relationship.
The Mentee's Guide: Making Mentoring Work for You—Lois J. Zachary—John Wiley and Sons (2009)
Principles and exercises to help prospective and current mentees make the most of relationships with mentors.
The Mentor's Guide: Facilitating Effective Working Relationships—Lois J. Zachary—John Wiley and Sons (2012)
Practical guide for mentors to help them help mentees maximize their learning and growth.
The Sponsor Effect: How to Be a Better Leader by Investing in Others—Sylvia Ann Hewlett—Harvard Business Review Press (2019)
Counterpart to Forget a Mentor, Find a Sponsor outlines the benefits and steps to being a successful sponsor.
Chapter 7: Advancing Careers
Flex Works—Catalyst (2013)
Addresses common misconceptions related to workplace flexibility and establishes several best practices for creating flexible workplace policies.
The Value of Workplace Flex: Options, Benefits, and Success Stories—Bentley University Center for Women and Business (2018)
Reviews why workplace flexibility is important, different types of flexibility, what doesn't work for flexible work arrangements, and strategies for implementing flexibility policies. Also includes recommendations for individuals who are looking for flexible options.
Raising Kids and Running a Household: How Working Parents Share the Load—Pew Research Center (2015)
Data related to gender differences in perceptions of work-life balance, division of labor, and career progression for two-parent households in which both parents work.
Revisiting the Social Construction of Family in the Context of Work—T. Alexandra Beauregard, Mustafa Ozbilgin, and Myrtle P. Bell—Journal of Managerial Psychology (2009)
Identifies ways in which traditional policy definitions of family limit work-life-balance accommodations for people with families, examines situations that don't fit these definitions, and proposes actions to ensure that work-life-balance accommodations are provided to all.
Diversity in the Profession of Architecture: Executive Summary—AIA (2016)
Key findings include reasons women and people of color are underrepresented in the profession and perceived challenges to career advancement, retention, and job satisfaction.
Good Intentions, Imperfect Execution? Women Get Fewer of the "Hot Jobs" Needed to Advance—Christine Silva, Nancy M. Carter, and Anna Beninger—Catalyst (2012)
Looks at the types of experiences required for women to advance into leadership roles and reveals that women are less likely to be given those types of assignments. Lists ways to assess how assignments are given to close the gender gap for the experience needed to advance.
The Myth of the Ideal Worker: Does Doing All the Right Things Really Get Women Ahead?—Nancy M. Carter and Christine Silva (2011)
Looks at the tactics used by men and women to seek career advancement and summarizes what is successful for each gender. Advises individuals on which strategies are most successful and organizations on how to set up structures that ensure a level playing field for advancement.
Race Matters—David A. Thomas—Harvard Business Review (2001)
Compares career progression for white people and people of color to help people understand differences to better mentor professionals of color. Also lists common challenges people of color face that their white peers might not and how to address them.
NCARB by the Numbers: Navigating the Path—NCARB (2018)
Provides an overview of changes in gender and racial attrition rates for licensure candidates over time.
Charting the Course: Getting Women to the Top—Melissa Artabane, Julie Coffman, and Darci Darnell—Bain & Company (2017)
Looks at the challenges women typically face in advancing to leadership roles and provides managers with strategies for supporting women in these areas.
Leadership in Your Midst: Tapping the Hidden Strengths of Minority Executives—Sylvia Ann Hewlett, Carolyn Buck Luce, and Cornel West—Harvard Business Review (2005)
Provides suggestions for better understanding and supporting pursuits of employees outside the workplace, recognizing the value in outside work-leadership opportunities. Also provides suggestions for rethinking inclusion in benefits and ways to support minority talent in advancing to leadership.
Chapter 8: Engaging Community
Wisdom from the Field: Public Interest Architecture in Practice—Roberta M. Feldman, Sergio Palleroni, David Perkes, and Bryan Bell (2013)
Overview of the state of public interest design in architecture, including benefits of public interest design, its interaction with communities, different ways firms are incorporating public interest design into their business practices, effective strategies, and suggestions to support and grow public interest design in architecture.
Open-Architecture Collaborative
U.S. nonprofit organization with multiple national and global chapters that develops educational programs for architects to become change makers and leaders "while simultaneously producing place-making programs with community developers and associations to inspire ownership and civic engagement in traditionally marginalized communities."
Public Architecture connects nonprofits with pro bono design services and advocates for socially meaningful design. The firm is a leader in the "pro bono design movement by asking design firms to formalize their commitment to give back professionally."
21st Century Development (21CD)—AIA Minnesota/Center for Sustainable Building Research
Framework for neighborhood development that uses building-performance areas related to sustainability and equity. This framework was designed for the purpose of creating resilient, regenerative communities that are healthy for people and the environment.
Create a Plan for Your Community—11th Street Bridge Park
Video highlighting the seven-step process used on the 11th Street Bridge Park's Equitable Development Plan project. Also see Our Community. Our Process. Our Plan. to hear more about the experiences of those who worked on the project.
Community Engagement Toolkit—Futurewise, Interim CDA, OneAmerica, El Centro de la Raza (2014)
Guidance and resources for engaging community in government planning. Includes tools to inform and consult with the community, promote community collaboration, and empower community members.
Community Planning Toolkit: Community Engagement—Community Places (2014)
A guide for planning community engagement. Includes methods and techniques for engagement and assesses their strengths and weaknesses.
This website provides a framework and tools for conducting community-based participatory research (CBPR). The CBPR Conceptual Model has four domains that guide engaged research: context, partnership processes, interventions and research, and range of outcomes. This model can be adapted to multiple different community-engagement contexts, including architecture.
Equitable Development as a Tool to Advance Racial Equity—Government Alliance on Race and Equity
Report detailing the framework for equitable development. Has examples of equitable-development projects in multiple locations in the United States.
The Field Guide to Human-Centered Design—IDEO (2015)
Guide to a process for human-centered design to allow deep engagement with the community being designed for. Process is structured into three phases: inspiration, ideation, and implementation, with a variety of strategies and tools for each phase.
A Model for Getting Started: How Do We Begin Taking Action in the Community?—Community Tool Box, University of Kansas
General model for getting involved in your community, with links to resources for every step: Assess, Plan, Act, Evaluate, and Sustain.
Housing as Intervention—Karen Kubey (2018)
Series of articles and essays on how architects are meeting the global challenges of the housing crisis. The essays explain how housing projects and design can act as interventions to improve equity around the world.
[Heading] Guides and toolkits
Getting Beyond Green: A Baseline of Equity Approaches in Sustainable Building Standards—NAACP Environmental & Climate Justice Program (2019)
Overview and assessment of green building programs and their equity approaches. Provides recommendations on how to center equity issues in green building programs.
A Guide to Engaging with Civic Leaders—AIA
Tool guide on how architects can engage with civic leaders to address local issues and develop better community partnerships with architecture professionals.
Chapter 9: Measuring Progress
NCARB By the Numbers—NCARB (2019)
Demographic data and analysis of licensure and career stages.
AIA Compensation & Benefits Report—AIA (2023)
Reports salary and compensation trends, including data on forty-five architecture firm positions and details on benefits being offered at firms.
AIA Firm Survey Report—AIA (2018)
Overview of general survey of architecture firms and industry trends.
AIA Diversity in the Profession of Architecture, Executive Summary (2016) and Key Findings (2015)
Summary of Perceptions of factors that affect the choice of architecture as a profession, job satisfaction, and retention.
EQxD 2018 Survey Early Findings Report—EQxD (2018)
Initial summary from Equity by Design of the largest survey regarding equity in the profession.
EQxD 2016 Survey Overview—EQxD (2016)
Findings from the 2016 survey.
Women in the Workplace—Lean In and McKinsey (2018)
Survey of 279 companies and 64,000 individuals regarding the state of women in corporate America.
"Assessing and Driving Change: Organizational Readiness and Success with Metrics" in The Diversity Executive: Tasks, Competencies, and Strategies for Effective Leadership—Michael L. Wheeler—The Conference Board (2001)
Includes a useful diagram of the four stages of organization readiness: exclusion, tolerance, acceptance, and inclusion.
How Can You Measure Diversity and Inclusion Results? Millennials Have an Idea—Anna Johansson—Forbes (2017)
Presents a simple case and techniques for going beyond mere demographic-diversity data.
How to Measure "Inclusion" Qualitatively: Free Resources and Research Data for D&I Advocates—Michelle Kim—Awaken (2017)
Discussion from employee standpoint of how to evaluate and find inclusive company cultures. Links to additional data and resources.
What Diversity Metrics are Best Used to Track and Improve Employee Diversity?—Roscoe Balter, Joy Chow, and Yin Jin (2014)
Executive summary provides brief, practical guidance on a process for gathering and applying qualitative and quantitative data.
An Antiracist Transformation Continuum for Organizations—The Episcopal Church (2011)
Resource includes a worksheet to help evaluate an organization's characteristics, practices, power position, and social-justice stance in relation to people of color.
Demystifying D&I Metrics—Mary L. Martinez of APTMetrics (2013)
Presentation from the SHRM Diversity & Inclusion Conference & Exposition. Slide 11 provides a table titled "Stage of D&I Evolution Should Impact What Is Measured." This table is a helpful source for connecting organizational objectives with the types of data that should be collected to measure progress.
Diversity Down to the Letter—Linda S. Gravett—SHRM
Basic ten-item checklist to help evaluate your current EDI program.
Diversity Metrics, Measurement, and Evaluation—Marc Brenman—Workforce Diversity Network (2013)
Comprehensive road map to making the case for and developing a qualitative and quantitative metrics program.
Intercultural Development Inventory—Mitchell Hammer (2019)
Assessment of intercultural competence. Test evaluates mindsets on a scale from mono-cultural to intercultural: denial, polarization, minimization, acceptance, adaptation.
Inclusive Economy Metric Set—B Lab (2019)
Detailed qualitative questionnaire dives into workplace culture and structure, especially with respect to equitable practices.
The Measurement of Work Engagement with a Short Questionnaire: A Cross-National Study (Appendix)—Wilmar B. Schaufeli, Arnold B. Bakker, and Marisa Salanova—Educational and Psychological Measurement (2006)
Presentation and analysis of a short questionnaire that measures work and well-being.
Measuring Progress—Project Include
Important guidance regarding policy, transparency, and survey design and processes.
Setting Targets—Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) (2018)
Detailed guidance on using data to help develop and monitor gender equity performance.
Why (and How!) to Ask Survey Questions on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity—Laura Wronski—SurveyMonkey
Specific guidance for writing survey questions.
Wide array of tools to help organizations support, advance, and retain women, with parallels in engineering and law.
Justice in the Built Environment
Diversity in the Profession of Architecture Executive Summary—AIA (2016)
Summary of a survey that examined diversity in architecture, including perceptions of representation, factors impacting representation, reasons people leave the field, and job satisfaction.
Equity by Design Metrics: Key Findings for the 2016 Equity in Architecture Survey—Equity by Design (2016)
Summary of findings from the most recent Equity by Design's Equity in Architecture Survey, focusing on career dynamics (factors that affect perceptions throughout a career in architecture) and career pinch points (personal and professional milestones that affect career progression).
Parlour Guides to Equitable Practice—Parlour (2004)
A set of eleven guides to equitable practice focusing on gender equality in architecture in Australia: 1) Pay Equity, 2) Long Hours, 3) Part-Time Work, 4) Flexibility, 5) Recruitment, 6) Career Progression, 7) Negotiation, 8) Career Break, 9) Leadership, 10) Mentoring, 11) Registration.
Researches many topics related to diversity, equity, inclusion in general and in relation to specific underrepresented groups. Resources to help companies better understand the issues; case studies and tools to help with implementing changes.
Provides tools and resources around the topics of women's leadership, families, and bias.
Offers many tool kits and worksheets for individuals and organizations to interrupt bias.
Wide array of tools to help organizations support, advance, and retain women employees: parallels in engineering and law.
CEOs Action for Diversity and Inclusion
CEO members pledge to advance diversity and inclusion. Actions taken by each company and the outcomes are cataloged.
Variety of articles with perspectives and insights on business and leadership topics. The company pioneered equitable practices.
Collection of tools and services to assist companies in data collection and analytics, including culture, employee engagement, and diversity.
Succinct articles summarize research on business topics including equity, diversity, and inclusion from a variety of sources.
Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity
General overview of implicit bias and comprehensive annual reviews of current research into implicit bias across many fields.
Focused on empowering women to achieve their goals through organizing women's peer groups, public awareness, and education.
Research looks at issues, attitudes, and trends through social science research.
Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM)
Thorough array of resources for any size employer, tools include legal compliance and a variety of human resources topics.
We are actively engaged in multiple initiatives and goals that value EDI for people of all backgrounds.
This glossary defines terms related to equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) to establish a shared understanding of the Guides for Equitable Practice.