Women in Architecture - Part 1

Leah Nicholls, Practice Director
How did you first start working in architecture?
To be honest, was just something I fell into it. I have an arts background and before this, I worked at the Barbican, V&A, and the Royal Festival Hall.
Can you tell me about a career challenge you’ve faced as a woman?
I remember early in my career 25 years ago before the #metoo movement, there were awful things happening to women in the workplace. When I moved to London and was working in my first permanent role, there was a man in his 60s who was a trustee. He cornered me in a galley kitchen, blocked the only exit and told me he was going to take me out for a lunch date. This made me feel very uncomfortable. I was the PA to the managing director, and I told her what had happened. Instead of dealing with the issue directly, her plan to manage the situation was to send me on useless errands whenever this man visited the office. Back then I didn’t feel like I had a voice, I was led to believe this behaviour was too difficult to face up to and avoidance was the best route.
Do you have any advice for women just starting their careers?
I always tell my junior staff that you aren’t born a professional, you learn to become one. It takes time and experience to find your voice and understand how best to communicate to different types of people. I’ve personally found that men and women have different communications styles, one isn’t better than the other, they’re just different. As a very generalised example, if a man wanted a promotion, he would use his words to directly communicate that to the decision-makers. Whereas a woman would communicate it with her actions and expect her managers to be aware of the effort she has put in. Women would benefit from asking directly for what they want, especially when it comes to money or promotions.
How do you think women can work to break the bias in the architectural industry?
It needs to start with education. It’s easy to say that architecture is a male-dominated industry, but I’ve seen so much positive change with more and more of our Part 1’s being female. I think these days there is more socioeconomic bias than gender bias in architecture. It’s still a career path where many come from privileged upbringings and the cost to attend university is unpalatable for so many people. Trying to navigate your way around that is quite difficult as you need to have a professional qualification. For someone who doesn’t have those means, they won’t know that architecture was even a route for them.
What charity did you select and why?
I picked Solace Women’s Aid. It’s a local charity based in Islington supporting women and children experiencing abuse and violence. While I’ve personally not been in this situation, I imagine it’s incredibly frightening to live with this fear.