Importance of Diversity

Today I would like to talk about a problem affecting many fellow women in my profession: Architecture does not have a pipeline problem. It has a retention problem. Women enter architecture schools in huge numbers. They graduate, enter practice, and build experience. But the further you move toward senior leadership, ownership, and decision-making positions, the fewer women you see. That is not because women suddenly become less talented or less ambitious. It is because the profession still rewards a very specific type of worker: someone who can stay late, travel at short notice, prioritize projects over everything else, and rely on someone else to absorb the unpaid work at home. Add motherhood, unequal care responsibilities, slow salary progression, opaque promotions, and a culture that romanticizes overwork, and the result is predictable. Women do not leave because they cannot handle architecture. They leave because architecture often makes staying unnecessarily difficult. And the industry loses years of education, experience, technical knowledge, client relationships, and leadership potential every time that happens. This will not be fixed by telling women to be more confident. It requires structural change: transparent salaries clear promotion criteria flexible working real return-to-work programs paid parental leave reasonable hours equal expectations of fathers and more women in decision-making positions We already have the talent. We are just very good at losing it. Save this, share it, and ask your office what it is actually doing to keep women in architecture. #architecture #womeninarchitecture #architecturecareer #architectureschool #youngarchitect architectureindustry gendergap genderequality architectureoffice architecturestudio architecturalpractice womenindesign womeninleadership workingmothers parentalleave workplaceculture designindustry architecturecommunity architectlife futureofarchitecture

Snapshot of gender equality across the SDGs. 🔎 The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are intrinsically linked to gender equality beyond the explicit targets set by Goal 5. It is critical for governments and companies to adopt a gender lens in addressing the SDGs, recognizing that gender disparities intersect with broader developmental challenges. This approach is not only a matter of social justice but also an economic imperative, with clear evidence that gender equality can drive sustainable growth and benefit society as a whole. A data-centric review of the current status of gender equality within the framework of the SDGs reveals the following: ▪ Poverty: Predictions show that over 340 million women and girls will be in extreme poverty by 2030 if trends persist. To achieve the SDG's 'No Poverty' target, the pace of progress must be accelerated 26 times faster than the current rate. ▪ Hunger: Food insecurity threatens to affect one in four women and girls by 2030. Closing gender gaps in agrifood systems could potentially boost global GDP by $1 trillion. ▪ Health: Maternal mortality rates declined by a third globally between 2000 and 2020 but have not improved since 2015, indicating a need for focused health interventions. ▪ Economic Empowerment: An investment of an additional $360 billion per year is estimated to be necessary for achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment, which are vital for ending poverty and hunger. ▪ Education: Disparities persist in educational attainment, with 60% of girls versus 57% of boys completing upper secondary education, suggesting that parity in education has not yet translated into universality. ▪ Labor and Employment: The workforce participation gap is notable, with a significant disparity in earnings where women make 51 cents for every dollar that men earn. ▪ Political Representation: Despite progress, women are still underrepresented in political and managerial roles, which impacts decision-making processes and policy development. ▪ Urban Development: Without inclusive urban planning, it is estimated that 1.05 billion women and girls could be living in inadequate housing conditions by 2050. ▪ Climate Impact: Climate change is poised to disproportionately affect women and girls, with millions at risk of poverty and increased food insecurity. The data underscores the necessity for integrated strategies that address gender disparities as part of the broader sustainable development agenda. The advancement of gender equality is not only a standalone goal but also a catalyst for achieving all SDGs. Source: THE GENDER SNAPSHOT 2023 (UN) #sdgs #sdgs2030 #sustainability #sustainable #gender #genderequality #sustainabledevelopment #climatechange #genderequity

LinkedIn asks you to post today to celebrate "a woman who's made an impact on your career." But these kinds of posts, even earnestly written, tend to leave us feeling hollow. If we're looking for real progress towards fairness and equality at work, here's what to do instead: 🪴 Did you know that if there's only one woman on a shortlist of qualified candidates, she has a whopping 0% chance of being hired? Simply expanding shortlists to include more than one woman (and for that matter, people from historically marginalized communities) helps counter biased decision-making. 📋 Standardized process can be a surprisingly easy way to mitigate bias. Structured interviewing, standardized skill-based assessments directly related to job tasks, and standardized scoring rubrics can make comparisons across candidates more fair and substantially reduce subtle gender discrimination. 🌻 Incentivize flexibility for ALL workers, not just women. In a vacuum, harmful norms may arise that imply these arrangements are only utilized by those who "don't value their careers as much," penalizing workers of all genders. Celebrate senior leaders, especially men, who model greater flexibility and wellbeing so that all workers are licensed to do the same. 🔍 Conduct a pay equity audit, seeking to examine not only outcomes like total compensation, but also distribution of candidates across roles. If men and women in the same role are getting paid similarly, but women are dramatically overclustered in low-paying roles, you've still got a problem. ❤️🩹 Create an anonymous and/or informal process to report and addressing discrimination and harassment. A lower-stakes way to address harm, in addition to training bystander intervention and modelling respectful communication, accountability, and timely feedback from the top, can mitigate daily harms for all workers. Some folks hesitate to push for these practices because they feel more committing than just posting on social media. They're right — because with more effort comes more impact. So reach out to a few of your colleagues and advocates within your workplace to work together on pushing for these changes. Ten posts in isolation pale in comparison to the impact ten peoples' collective organizing might have on your workplace and everyone in it! Remember: International Women's Day is a chance for us not just to celebrate women, but to sharpen our advocacy alongside women, to build a future that's better, brighter, and more fair for all of us.

We talk a lot about women supporting women. But what happens when that support stays performative? I’ve been in rooms where the woman at the top made it harder for the next one in line. Where the mindset was: “If I had to fight for this seat, you should too.” This isn’t empowerment. It’s internalized scarcity. Real empowerment? It doesn’t happen on panels. It doesn’t happen through hashtags. It happens in moments no one claps for: — 💼 When you teach a younger colleague how to negotiate like she belongs in the room. — 👥 When you introduce her to people who will actually open doors. — 🧠 When you offer her insights she won’t learn in business school or a trending carousel. — ✍🏼 When you share the mistakes you made so she doesn’t have to repeat them. We keep saying representation matters. And it does. But what matters just as much is transference. The transfer of wisdom. Access. Network. Power. I’ve seen too many women given a platform, but never handed the playbook. Mentorship isn’t a bonus. It’s the missing lever. If we want more women in boardrooms, building companies, shaping capital— We need less rhetoric and more real support. 👣 Start here: Who's one woman you’ve helped behind the scenes this year? And who's one woman you can reach out to today? Let’s move beyond optics. Let’s build something that lasts.

As someone proudly committed to this work, I’ve watched the language of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging get distorted. Lately, DEIB has become a political talking point, a phrase some use to divide rather than connect. People are being labeled as “DEI hires,” as if creating access, representation, and fairness were something to be ashamed of. The truth is, people still have to rise to the merit in the room, DEIB just helps them get to the room. DEIB was never meant to exclude anyone. It’s contextual. It’s about recognizing that in every space, someone can be left out, overlooked, or carrying barriers they didn’t create. Depending on the setting, that person, or group, changes. Sometimes it’s women. Sometimes it’s men in nursing. Sometimes it’s veterans. Sometimes it's people in rural areas. Sometimes it's women in surgical specialties. DEIB isn’t about centering one group forever, it’s about noticing who’s being pushed to the margins in any given context. That’s why this work should matter to everyone. Belonging isn’t a privilege; it’s the foundation of how people, teams, and systems thrive. Let’s break it down 👇 Diversity is commonly seen as increasing representation of people of color, women, LGBTQ+ professionals, or people with disabilities. it's also: Recognizing the need for greater representation of men in nursing, second career nurses, rural clinicians, and first-generation college graduates. Equity is commonly seen as providing workplace accommodations for employees with disabilities. But it's also: Ensuring night-shift staff, working parents, or PRN nurses have the same access to growth, leadership, and recognition. Inclusion is commonly seen as ensuring cultural holidays and pronouns are respected. And also: Making sure introverted voices, remote team members, or those early in their careers are equally heard in meetings and decisions. Belonging is often seen a creating safe spaces for marginalized racial or gender identities. But also it's: Helping majority-group colleagues see their place within DEIB efforts, so everyone feels part of building the culture, not outside of it. ✨ DEIB is everyone’s work, because context changes everything. It’s not a trend. It’s not a checkbox. It’s how we create environments where people can lead, learn, and belong: together.

This is a friendly reminder that diversity without equity simply doesn't happen. SHRM, an organization that trains and equips HR professionals, recently made waves by adopting the acronym I&D instead of IE&D. The goal is to focus on inclusion first in an attempt to address DEI's shortcomings while weathering the backlash against it. There's just one problem: Without equity, you do not have diversity because marginalized populations won't stay long enough in your company, they won't move up, or they may not even enter the organization altogether. So many companies try to manage diversity without considering equity. And in the process, diversity isn't maintained, but lost. At a former job, I listened to an online training that did just this. Coming from someone who does DEI work, it was painful. Here's why: For all the talk about embracing differences based on race, gender, sexuality, and religion, we never discussed the ways people continue to be marginalized BECAUSE of said identities. It does no good to lecture about welcoming Muslims if your audience doesn't know that inviting them to social functions that serve alcohol can be off-putting. It does no good to discuss welcoming Black and other racially marginalized folks if your audience doesn't understand how they are routinely underpaid, over-penalized for mistakes, and are often the first to be laid-off. It does no good to say you value persons with disabilities if your spaces are inaccessible. Or if leadership doesn't understand that not all disabilities are visible. Without equity, there is no lasting diversity because specific needs aren't being met. Without justice, there is no diversity because marginalized folks won't feel safe. And there will be no sense of inclusion because marginalized folks won't feel valued. Instead of focusing on diversity at the expense of everything else, view it as the outcome of your institution being equity oriented. Diversity is sustained when people are seen, understood, valued, and have the barriers to their success removed. #DiversityAndInclusion #Diversity #Equality #AntiRacism #RacialEquity Image source: Diversity Recruitment Image description: A multi-layered pyramid with equity as the base and moving towards diversity at the top. In between are other layers (equality, inclusion, and belonging) that are achieved once equity has taken place and that lead to the creation of diversity.

I’ve read the study behind the recent The Wall Street Journal headline claiming DEI reduces productivity. This isn’t about whether you like DEI or not. It’s about whether the analysis holds up. It doesn’t. They didn’t measure DEI programs, policies, or practices. They used changes in workforce composition, specifically increases in minority representation in management, as a proxy. That means they assumed more Black and minority leaders in management equals DEI. Then they layered in another assumption that those shifts may reflect lower qualifications. That part isn’t measured, tested, or proven. It’s implied. So now you’ve got a study that never actually measures DEI, uses demographic change as a stand-in, and quietly attaches a deficit narrative to it. That’s not a neutral starting point. This isn’t a causal study. It’s an observational analysis using proxy variables and macro-level data. There’s no control group, no clean way to isolate DEI from everything else happening in the same time period, and that period includes labor shortages, pandemic disruption, and major shifts in how people work. All of that affects productivity. None of it is separated out here. Instead, the study tracks two things moving at the same time and draws a straight line between them. That’s correlation, not causation. Then it takes industry-level shifts and extrapolates them into a national economic loss, which ignores how markets actually work. So what do we actually have? A proxy standing in for DEI, no direct measurement, no control group, and a conclusion built on stacked assumptions. The findings also line up neatly with a broader effort to discredit DEI. That doesn’t automatically invalidate the study, but it does raise the bar for rigor. This doesn’t clear it. Here’s the real issue. Leaders are already reacting to this. If you’re adjusting hiring, promotion, or performance strategy based on headlines like this, without your own internal data, you’re not making a data-driven decision. You’re outsourcing judgment. This is the work. Building systems that actually track performance, mobility, and outcomes so decisions are grounded and defensible. Not reactive. The question isn’t whether DEI works. It’s whether your organization knows enough about its own performance to make decisions it can stand behind.

🤔 "Who gets to (be able to choose to) work long hours?" ⏳ That's the question I've been sitting with after reading two very different but deeply connected articles. One, published in The Conversation U.S., shows that nearly half of the gender earnings gap in Australia 🇦🇺 and Germany 🇩🇪 comes not from wage inequality per se, but from *time* inequality. In most heterosexual households, when men work long hours, it's because #women are quietly covering the rest – school pick-ups, elder care, dinner, admin, life. Turns out, we've been subsidising one partner's ambition with another's exhaustion. 🤷🏽♂️ The other piece, on Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) Australia, tells the stories behind the stats. Mothers who thrive in their roles because of flexible work – not in spite of it. Families reshaping their lives after escaping the grind of 13-hour days. Leaders who stop clock-watching and start designing for trust. Here are the threads I see between them: 🧵 Gender equity isn't just about raising women's incomes – it's also about men logging off earlier. 🧵 Flexibility isn't a perk – it's the infrastructure modern families need to thrive. 🧵 The problem isn't just #GenderPayGap – it's the unequal distribution of time (and the assumptions underneath it). We often focus on getting more women into the workforce. That matters. But we should also be asking: ‣ What would it take for men to work less? ‣ What if workplaces stopped encouraging and glorifying overwork? ‣ What if equality looked like time reclaimed – not just titles achieved? I'd love to hear how/if rethinking time is part of your approach to equity – that's an angle I hadn't thought much about up to today! 💬 Articles linked in the comments.

A groundbreaking analysis on the link between biodiversity 🦇 and human well-being was published this week in Science. Bats, often overlooked in biodiversity discussions, play a critical role as natural pest controllers—benefiting both the economy and human health. Eyal Frank, known for his work linking vulture declines to human mortality in India, illustrates the cascading effects of biodiversity loss on agriculture and public health, using the decline of bat populations in the U.S. due to white-nose syndrome as a case study. The findings are alarming. Between 2006 and 2017, counties affected by white-nose syndrome, a fungal disease decimating bat populations, saw a 31% rise in insecticide use. Farmers, deprived of the pest control provided by bats, turned to chemicals as a substitute. However, this stopgap came at a steep cost—not just financially. The study shows infant mortality rates in those counties increased by nearly 8%, resulting in 1,334 additional infant deaths during this period, a grim consequence of increased chemical exposure. Frank aimed to quantify both the economic and human costs of losing this vital ecosystem service. His work illustrates the interconnectedness of biodiversity and human well-being. With fewer bats to prey on insects, crop revenues in affected areas dropped by 28.9%, with total agricultural losses estimated at $26.9 billion. The compensatory rise in insecticide use failed to fully replace the lost pest control and likely worsened declines in crop quality and farm revenue. While much of the biodiversity conversation focuses on species loss, this research underscores broader impacts, extending to agricultural productivity and public health. It serves as a stark warning to policymakers about the hidden costs of biodiversity decline. As efforts to protect 30% of the planet’s land and marine ecosystems by 2030 gain momentum, studies like this provide crucial evidence that conservation is not just about saving species but also safeguarding human life and livelihoods. Key Figures: 👉 31% increase in insecticide use in affected counties. 👉 8% rise in infant mortality in those same regions. 👉 1,334 additional infant deaths attributed to bat population declines. 👉 28.9% drop in crop revenue in areas impacted by white-nose syndrome. 👉 Estimated agricultural losses of $26.9 billion between 2006 and 2017. Eyal G. Frank. The economic impacts of ecosystem disruptions: Costs from substituting biological pest control. Science. 6 Sep 2024 Vol 385, Issue 6713 DOI: 10.1126/science.adg034 🔗 https://lnkd.in/gn4Kh5xE

IN the workplace ... great minds DO NOT ALWAYS think alike ... The ghost of unanimous, fierce head-nodding around the meeting table can haunt a workplace, often masking a deeper, silent turmoil that lies beneath the surface of agreement. This scenario is often reinforced by those around the table paying tribute to their effective decision-making capabilities by declaring that “great minds think alike”. The problem in the modern workplace is that the reverse is more likely to be true: great minds don't think alike. And when we begin to appreciate varying views as high-performing investments rather than taxes, they transform into valuable assets that enrich decision-making and encourage growth. The power of diverse thinking lies in the range of perspectives that come into play when approaching issues, challenges, problems and opportunities. Diverse thinking challenges conventional solutions, pushes the boundaries of what is possible and leads to breakthroughs that homogenous thinking might never achieve. This type of thinking also provides a platform for robust debate and challenge. Such an environment is not just about tolerating disagreements but actively fostering them. And with adaptability crucial in today’s rapidly evolving world, diverse thinking prepares organisations to respond more effectively to change. Teams equipped with varied thinking styles, experiences and ideas can navigate unexpected challenges more flexibly and creatively, maintaining a competitive edge in a dynamic market. Embracing diverse viewpoints also allows for a more comprehensive understanding of issues to better navigate the complex challenges that today’s organisations face. Perhaps most important, embracing differing views guards against the danger of group think, where the desire for harmony leads to poor decision-making. While there is little doubt about the importance of diverse thinking, the question is how to break the cycle of being in “violent agreement”. One suggestion is that individuals should argue like they are right but listen like they are wrong. The phrase emphasises a dual approach to communication: confidently presenting one’s own ideas while remaining open to the possibility that they might be mistaken. Engaging in constructive disagreement is not always easy or comfortable. It might lead to tension and occasionally bruised emotions. The value that diverse thinking brings is in the quality of outcomes it produces. The modern workplace must embrace the premise that great minds do not think alike, fostering a culture where diverse thinking is not only accepted but seen as essential to success. #diversity #management #leadership #aimwa #innovation #humanresoruces #AIMWA Cartoon Used Under Licence: CartoonStock