It is unusual for authors to announce that they can’t wait for the day when their book is rendered obsolete. But then the researchers behind 100 Women: Architects in Practice hope that its title will ultimately sound as strange as a book about 100 left-handed architects, or 100 who happen to have ginger hair. We’re not there yet. In an industry where the gender pay gap has widened in recent years, where all-male panels at conferences are not unusual, and where macho culture still prevails on building sites, a book like this, sadly, still has a place.
It serves several purposes. First, recalling Mitt Romney’s unfortunate phrase, it is a literal “binder full of women” – a bulging 300-page directory of female architects from all around the world. The hope is that it will be used by the conveners of competition shortlists, selection panels, awards juries, hiring committees and biennales – to diversify their male-dominated lists. It is for the headhunters who claim women never apply, for the clients who say they just can’t find women with the right experience. They are out there – and this is merely a sample, not an exhaustive survey.
