Key factors behind the under-representation of female architects in leadership positions

As the first author, I am working with Mahzabin Marium to further expand on the study, with initial guidance from Dr. Mohammad Habib Reza.

One of the most trending concerns is that the number of leading female architects in Bangladesh is drastically low, and an alarming state of gender inequality persists in the architectural professional scenario. Therefore, it is very important to learn why there are very few female famous successful architects.

Based on the results of a preliminary study with a small interviewee pool, further studies are being guided to find out what factors limit the number of female leaders in architectural fields in Bangladesh.

Women are well rehearsed to face all daily gender based hindrances, which do not cause them to leave their profession entirely, even though these might tire them out. Family, child bearing responsibilities, and pregnancies often look like temporary setbacks for women, but they actually have an everlasting effect on a woman’s career. At root level, some fresh architects carry very low ambition and confidence, because they were unable to generate it within themselves for a lack of role models. During the course of the profession, client’s assumed lack of confidence in a female architect’s performance caused great setbacks. Through the course of time most of them lose their strength to keep fighting against the deeply rooted patriarchy. Only a few of them are able to keep fighting as they are fueled by passion, which is why we see such a small number at the top.

A case study of architects from Brac University, Dhaka, Bangladesh was conducted to lay out some basic understanding. This study found the following problems to be more commonly faced by females:

Currently we are running a survey to find the most leading reason among all the mentioned factors.