26 MAY 2015

CITY TALKS: Justine Clark — “Come into our Parlour…”

Justine Clark brings equity into the discussion of architecture in the 21st century City Gallery Wellington, Civic Square Monday 15 June, 6pm

Free entry

City Talks is an ongoing series initiated by the New Zealand Institute of Architects Wellington Branch and presented in partnership with City Gallery Wellington.

This June, Justine Clark untangles six common myths about women and architecture through both statistics and anecdotal evidence drawn from a large Australian research project that is rather close to the truth here in New Zealand too.

These facts are suffused with many myths about women in architecture, some of which are destructive and detrimental. Women have been highly active and successful participants in the professional and public cultures of architecture for at least a century. Yet, despite this long history, women still cluster at the junior end of the profession and are significantly underrepresented in its upper echelons. Women continue to face bias within the architectural workplace, leave the profession at much higher rates than men, and there is ongoing evidence of gender-based pay gaps.

In the 21st century, the myths need to be debunked and the facts need to be understood and challenged if architecture is to become a more equitable and robust profession with opportunity for all. The same principles could also be applied to other professions where discussions around equity and resources are required to develop alternative stories and strategies for workplace success.

Justine is an architecture editor, writer, critic and researcher. Educated at the University of Auckland and Victoria University of Wellington, she is a former editor of Architecture Australia.

She is also an honorary senior research fellow at the University of Melbourne. With Naomi Stead, Karen Burns, Sandra Kaji-O’Grady, Julie Willis, Amanda Roan, Gillian Whitehouse and Susan Savage, she is a chief investigator on the Australian Research Council-funded project Equity and Diversity in the Australian Architecture Profession: Women, Work, and Leadership.

She is the editor of Parlour: women, equity, architecture, and recently began writing architectural criticism for The Age.

The talk will be followed by refreshments.

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