Stakeholder Release
Monday, 17 December 2018
Census Report: Women in Landscape Architecture
The Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (AILA)has today released the Census Report 2001-2016 – Women in Landscape Architecture, taking a leadership role to ensure the landscape architecture profession is as inclusive, progressive and modern as it possibly can be.
In March 2018, AILA launched a Gender Equity Project to investigate the participation of women in landscape architecture and develop strategies to address gender inequity in the profession.
AILA President Shaun Walsh reaffirmed that women are jointly shaping, innovating and leading the landscape architecture profession.
“This project will ensure we develop an appropriate research and evidence base to support equality in landscape architecture workplaces more broadly” said Mr Walsh.
“The study is the first step in a broader gender equity program and we look forward to leading a broader conversation with all members on how we should appropriately respond to the reports findings.”
“We will be forming a Gender Equity Working Group and spend the first quarter of 2019 sharing the results with our industry through various mediums.”
To properly understand the specifics of the issue, AILA collaborated with Parlour and the Monash XYX Lab by commissioning a study on gender equity specifically in landscape architecture.
“The report examines the available data to provide a detailed picture of women’s participation in landscape architecture. This statistical analysis will help the AILA and the profession understand how the experiences of women, as a group, differ from men and it provides a large-scale context within which individual experiences can be better understood,” said Dr Gill Matthewson, author of the study.
“One of the key finds is that women are well-represented in raw numbers, and participation has grown over the course of the twenty-first century.”
“The Report also highlights how women’s patterns of work change significantly over the course of their careers. The most notable pattern is the high numbers of women moving into part-time work as they age, suggesting the profession supports a wide variety of engagement.”
“There is also no discernible gender pay gap at the junior end of the profession.”
While some of these results are positive when compared to other professions, there are a number of areas that the Gender Equity Working Group will focus on, using a series of recommendations provided by Justine Clark of Parlour to guide the process.
“There is a stark distribution by gender when considering those who work part-time which suggest that the profession succumbs to wider, traditional societal pressures that see women bearing the responsivity of child raising.”
“The overall gender pay fap for full-time workers in landscape architecture is 10% and there are some discrepancies in the types of ownership models between men and women.” Dr Matthewson said.
Download a full copy of the report here.
Members can express interest in joining the Gender Equity Working Group by emailing [email protected] a copy of your CV. The terms of reference for the working group can be found here.
This study was funded by a range of organisations who assisted AILA in accelerating this piece of work. AILA would like to thank and acknowledge the Built Environment Channel, Tract, Hassell, FFLA, McGregor Coxall, Outlines, GbLA, ASPECT Studios, Verity Campbell, Four Landscape Studios, Sharon Mackay and Sue Barnsley for their financial contributions to the project. The graphic design was generously contributed by OCULUS