“Your success will not be determined by your gender or your ethnicity, but only on the scope of your dreams.” —ZAHA HADID
Being recognized as a woman in the realm of building and construction in a male-dominated industry is still viewed as enormous and may seem impossible. Inequality in salary, lack of job advancement, and excessive sexism, harassment, and bullying are issues that women in the architecture industry must deal with. Women have continuously been left out of, concealed by, or supplanted in the mainstream historical narrative of architecture.
When I tell people I'm pursuing architecture as a student, they often remark in a condescending manner intended to either elicit perplexity or mock me by saying that architecture is a "man's profession." This is due to the patriarchal society's expectation that women will be more prevalent in household courses than in those pertaining to the field of the profession. Frequently, when my designs are more creative or peculiar than conventional architecture, they are dismissed as being "feminine" or "maarte". Even now, I have a strong sense that men will use my decisions and actions as a weapon to marginalize me based solely on my gender in the future. They will weaponize the phrase “go back to the kitchen" since men will be rewarded for performing their jobs more effectively than women, which will automatically favor them in the workplace.
From what I observe, a lot of individuals continue to follow the rules for how and what architecture should be. As long as it fulfills its purpose of providing life-shielding in the form of art, architecture need not look a certain way. Additionally, the aim of architecture should be to provide a meaningful and useful response to the environment around us. Women are stereotyped as weak and only capable of performing domestic tasks. Women's perception of fragility stems solely from a lack of encouragement to strive for greater heights on their part. And that power is only ever viewed in terms of its physical component, never in the same way as its intellectual component. Women are only required to perform domestic tasks since most men have demonstrated a lack of ability to do so well or to the same level as a woman, which is also the sole justification for this. You don't do the job well, so you delegate it to women. Some of them questioned my ability to perform the job since I was so small. Without a doubt, my skill set is not defined by my height; what I can contribute to the table will never be determined by my height.
In order to break the common narrative of architectural history, in which women have been largely erased, we aim to advocate for, support, inspire, and promote women in architecture. We also hope to stem from the disappearance of talented women from the field and make sure that women's voices are heard.
While I admire and look up to every woman architect in the world, I must admit that seeing a few courageous women who changed history, presented progress, and were not afraid to make a difference had a profound effect on me and my female classmates. This sense of confidence and belonging inspired future generations to dream big because nothing is impossible until it is. From my standpoint, the fact that we are women shouldn't be a factor because we are skilled and belong in every place where decisions are made. We are noteworthy, thriving, and valuable. No one has been given the power to decide when and how we will fail since, among all people, we realized that we are more than the labels that men give us. We don't require approval from others because we are bold and significant and always will be. Because we can be anything we want to be and because we will provide a flicker of hope to dim regions where light has been extinguished, the question isn't who will let me, but rather who will be able to stop us from being a woman with great passion.
Let's keep our heads held high and declare with pride that we are empowered, that women can freely seek professional achievement and personal fulfillment no matter what field of work they choose, whether it be architecture, environmental planning, interior design, or any other field profession. Instead of making apologies for our femininity and gender, let's demonstrate to them what our hands are capable of, proving to them that we each have a phenomenon to contribute—women are the future.