It’s been more than 20 years since the Royal Institute of British Architects (Riba) and the the Fawcett Society published a landmark 2003 study, Why Do Women Leave Architecture? And one thing is unmistakably clear: the profession has not moved far enough or fast enough to support women.
Build It Together, commissioned by Riba in 2025, revealed that many of the barriers identified two decades ago remain deeply entrenched. Pay inequality, sexism, exclusionary workplace cultures and damaging expectations about working hours continue to define women’s experiences in architecture.
