I have a SIL who’s an architect but I dont think she makes much money in it.
If you simply like the topic then do it but dont think it will be a good career.
I am an Architect and am Hispanic and have two nephews (also Hispanic), one who is an Architect and another who is in school who is an Architect and his girlfriend (Greek) also in school to be an Architect. My class was only about 50% white male, out of 20 students we have 5 women and a few other minorities (besides me). My girlfriend in school was also Hispanic so it doesn’t seem that rare to me. When I worked for a large office I found it to be a pretty diverse field to be honest. But again this is just my personal experience so I don’t know what the data actually shows.
She wasn’t an architect, but Ayn Rand was quite fond of architecture.
I work in a similar industry that in the US has been historically white and male but becoming more diverse. I’ve found that many companies will aggressively try to hire qualified female or non-white candidates when they can find them because they have internal goals for % of each they employ.
Yep, if you’re a woman, and worse, an Arab woman, and worse, a Muslim woman born in Iraq, you’ve absolutely no hope. Pack it in now.
We stayed up pretty late too (CS major also), but we typically laughed at the architorture folks because with the exception of a specific pair of classes- our digital esign class (basically EE) that required use of a CAD package on Sparc stations, and our assembly class that was IBM 370 batch processed (had to submit a job, then view the printed output to see if it worked), we could telnet in and do most of our work from our homes, whether that was a dorm room or an apartment.
Women of Steel and Stone: 22 Inspirational Architects, Engineers, and Landscape Designers by Anna M. Lewis is a book I read recently (published this year or last) and describes the careers of female architects. It was interesting. http://www.amazon.com/Women-Steel-Stone-Inspirational-Architects/dp/1613745087
I spent 10 years working with architects back when I was a practicing structural engineer. There were more male architects than female, sure, but there were quite a few women. Minorities too.
My general observations about architects: the job pays relatively poorly and the architectural firms are not very good about making money (i.e. making sure they are paid enough for their services). There are two basic types of architects: design and technical. Design figures out how things look. Technical figures out how everything actually works together and makes sure the building functions properly and complies with the codes. I typically worked with the technical architects.
Structural engineering is more of a boy’s club than architecture. I’m female, and it didn’t bother me too much, so I would say don’t let that stop you from pursuing architecture.
Telnet was 5+ years in the future when I got my CS degree. We burned the midnight oil as God intended: down at the CS building in a group. Each alone with his (or very rarely her) stacks of cards, printouts, and books.
Or VT-05, printouts, and books depending on the course. teco uber alles!!
Thank you so much for the Women of Steel and Stone shout out!
I truly want to inspire all our future builders.
The one thing about all the women in Women of Steel and Stone was that they truly loved engineering/architecture and landscape design. Do what you love!
Also all the women had the support of their parents… that was uncommon in the 19th century. Most daughters were expected to become teachers or nurses if they worked at all.
BUT new research shows that parents swaying their daughters away from STEM fields is one of the main reasons why young girls are not going into STEM fields.
Love this discussion.
Study to be a city planner instead. Why limit yourself to just one building, when you can design a whole city?
You’re welcome. It was interesting to read about all the magnificent buildings women had created.
Funny, I only know one architect. A woman. She actually teaches and doesn’t practice per se.
For architecture students, this is a really bad idea.the problem with working alone at home is that there is no criticism of your work, no bouncing of ideas, no “friendly” rivalry to push you to do better.
Undergrad (90’s) we were all there at the studios. You could ask for up of opinions. Maybe you ran out of wood for your model or you aren’t sure how to resolve a design issue.
As a grad student (early 2000’s), I sat in on juries for undergrads. Nobody did this much and it showed in their work. They had a bad idea and ran (and ran) with it. Glaring mistakes were made. More than anything, they didn’t appear as tight knit of a community.
PLENTY of women studying when I was earning my B.Arch from 98-03. Also a solid percentage of minorities. It’s come a long way…the early class photos were full of a LOT of white males.
I’m one of those that went on to different design-related field – I became a graphic designer and an art director after school. A nine-month internship drawing stairwells and bathrooms turned me off a bit. I like to be creative more often and get more instant gratification. Now, as a 35-year-old, I realize I might have grown to love architecture as a profession, but it definitely would have been rough at first.
Wouldn’t trade the education for anything though…despite the all-nighters and sleep deprivation and all that, I absolutely learned how to be a designer. Not just an architect – because a lot of that you learn in the field – but a designer.