The single-wide escalator wasn’t cutting it at the Hyatt Regency in Minneapolis. Held Sept. 12-14, the AIA 2019 Women’s Leadership Summit had more than 750 attendees, a record-setting number for the sixth biennial event, which was likely the largest gathering of women in architecture ever. Ever. (Yes, a handful of men, including AIA president William Bates, FAIA, were present and welcomed warmly as allies and “accomplices” to equity in architecture.)
And now those 750 people were navigating their way from a keynote session held on the venue’s ground floor to the educational breakouts on the second floor. With no staircase in sight, the queue for the escalator was long and winding. A nearby elevator seemed excessive for the one-floor trip.
Another attendee and I eyed the empty down escalator humming next to its bustling counterpart. She turned to me: “Let’s do it.” To the exclamations of nearby attendees, she proceeded steadily up the descending steps. I hesitated at the landing plate as the downward treads flattened near my feet. Could I make the upward climb despite the forces pushing me down? There was no better event at which to try.
Representation is lacking in the profession of architecture, particularly at the leadership level, where principals, partners, and executives are disproportionately white and male. But the increasing diversity of the talent pipeline combined with the increased awareness and discussion about equity, diversity, and inclusion in practice are promising.
The atmosphere at WLS is like that of no other event, simultaneously electrifying, engaging, and supportive (read ARCHITECT’s coverage of WLS 2015 and WLS 2017). The high ratio of women is a palpable inverse to what many attendees experience every day at work, jobsites, and board meetings. As opening keynote speaker, author, and Thrive Labs founder Priya Parker explained, in an all-women setting, gender falls away as the typical first aspect of our identity that is noticed. We no longer, she said, had to worry about “performing for the person you’re least comfortable around,” and our personalities, skills, and expertise can take center stage—as they ideally should, but don’t in a society where preconceived notions and deep-rooted bias abound.
Subsequently, speakers and attendees alike could put away the façades they’ve honed over years and candidly share their vulnerabilities, indignities, and paths forward. One message offered by several speakers: When you air the fears or shame wadded up inside, you suddenly are freed to grow and heal.
To detail every presentation and experience would be impossible given the 20-plus educational seminars and workshops occurring along parallel tracks, alongside several wellness activities, social gatherings, and local architecture tours curated by AIA National and the local AIA Minnesota WLS planning committee, in an inaugural joint organizational effort for WLS.
But the summit can be summarized by its theme “Reframe, Rethink, Refresh.” WLS 2019 offered attendees a chance to reframe their intentions for pursuing architecture and what drew them to attend the summit. Many stories exchanged during session breaks among attendees and told on stage by a preselected group (with coaching by the South Mountain Community College Storytelling Institute, based in Phoenix) centered on an instant affinity for architecture and its potential impact on society at large.
Through WLS’s workshops and educational seminars, attendees had the opportunity to rethink how barriers in the profession could become opportunities. For example, several presenters emphasized the value of soft skills—listening, multitasking, consensus-building—as essential to leadership success despite their undervalue in the profession. Though being the sole woman, person of color, or person with disabilities on a team means you can offer unique insights that ultimately improve a project, you can demand not to be pigeonholed as the token fill-in-the-blank. And when long hours toiling on work that doesn’t excite you finally takes its toll, a person who never dreamed of starting her own firm can do exactly that and thrive while juggling other responsibilities—such as caretaking, which still falls primarily on women—and still come out on top financially as a firm owner.
Beyond the refreshing experience of being at an industry event without receiving silent stares or outright comments questioning your attendance, several WLS workshops offered strategies to refresh your career paths to align better with interests and goals, which change over time. During her opening keynote, Parker asked, “How many of you are in your dream job, but don’t know what’s next?” She referred to the roughly quarter of the room who raised their hands as “unconscious innovators,” people who are ready to blaze new trails.
Closing keynote speaker Toshiko Mori, FAIA, principal of her eponymous firm and the Robert P. Hubbard professor in the practice of architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, had a comment along a similar line: “Women are creative. They know where to go to make more money.” This could manifest in finding new revenue streams for their studios or entering more profitable or rewarding fields in the building industry outside of conventional practice.
As an endnote, I did make it up the down escalator that day at the Hyatt—but not without a trip and stumble near the summit. The woman who proceeded me quickly asked if I needed help. I shook my head and scrambled up: Having someone nearby who had herself made the climb was enough.
Note: This story has been updated since first publication.
