NEXTpittsburgh: This year, Carnegie Mellon’s School of Architecture invited only practicing women architects to its spring lecture series. While an all-female lecture series might not raise eyebrows in certain fields, it is unprecedented among architecture schools—internationally—and has been widely celebrated through social media. In Pittsburgh, it has also sparked a faculty-student discussion about the role of gender at the School of Architecture (SoA).
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The article did note that some people are concerned about have all anything for speakers, which I can agree with, but this seems to have been and excellent choice by the SoA. They were responding to the current political climate, and from what one of the students said in the text, earlier discussions of activism. But I think much more importantly, it wasn’t just activism because the school choose all female speakers, they each had work with architecture and activism. I really appreciated that they found a panel of all female architects, there may be fewer female architects than male, but not so few that a qualified and talented group can’t be found. I think it is important not just for them to have an opportunity to speak so that students can hear their ideas, but that they don’t seem less qualified than their male counterparts getting these speaking invitations. Definitely a moment to be proud to be at CMU.
Over spring break, I attended an event for Girls Who Code, which was an incredible showcase and celebration of young women in computing. This showcase of female architects at CMU reminds me of the Girls Who Code event, just on an older scale and in a different field. I do wish that this article included more images of the showcase – it would have strongly added to the talent that I know was demonstrated.
I think it is remarkable that there have been so many initiatives recently to include women in a number of industries, and it will be especially great for the young women today who will hopefully believe that there is more to their futures than beauty standards. I strongly believe in educating people young about things like equality and inclusion, and all the current efforts to show that women are intelligent and innovative are a great starting point. Hopefully, in the future, we will be able to close the gap between women and men and will no longer need to celebrate just one side of the equation.
Yay! I love hearing how the environment we surround ourselves in has chosen to respond to the problems that we face today, and not apologize for it. I had never really thought about the dynamic that faced women in architecture. It is crazy to me, yet completely understandable how the women felt like the inequality "wasn't something to question." and that they would even model their work of of the men in the industry because they felt like that was the only way to get recognized for their work. I think that this lecture series is a great step for Carnegie to make for their students. This #allfemale lecture series is giving the women in the program role models, showing them that it is possible to succeed in a male dominated profession. I like how the article mentioned that this is also educating the men in the program about this issue and getting them involved in the discussion early on.
Look at carnegie mellon being innovative! I think it is absolutely AMAZING that the university continues to break barriers and remains advocates for gender/racial/sexual equality. It's nice to know that is this not something that just the school of drama strives to attain, rather, all departments and colleges are being held to this standard. Just yesterday I saw on Facebook advertisements for "The Future is Female" a new play festival happening right here at Carnegie Mellon on April 8th! I cannot wait to attend it and see new works from our very own drama students. This will provide a lot of insight into what gender equality is/means in the theatre. I think issues of gender inequality are usually swept under the rug at most universities and it is so important to hold your education institution accountable. We students are paying a lot of money- especially to private universities- so we all deserve equal opportunity.
Sexism is something that women will encounter in every field of study. It’s something women encounter throughout their lives. It’s even something they encounter in their classes and interactions here at CMU. So I think it’s incredibly naïve for an institution like CMU to deny what is happening in their halls. The fact that the School of Architecture is acknowledging the gender gap in the field and the fact that the school perpetuates this is amazing. I’m glad they were able to change their lecture series, and I hope they continue toward a more inclusive environment for women. It’s something we could really learn from here in the School of Drama. I really don’t think SoD has done enough to address the sexism that happens in our classrooms, let alone give us the tools to combat sexism in the workplace. In fact, I’d guess the majority of the departments here at CMU need to recognize their contributions to sexism, and then start trying to fix them.
I think this is awesome. I do question the article's point though that this sort of thing might be common in other fields. It might be true for a few humanities programs or things of that nature, but I do not agree that most of the scientific fields have achieved this yet. While this is amazing for the architecture field, I cannot remember a similar story to this one about the fields of chemistry, biology, or engineering. I think the arts are always a great gateways through which other fields can follow to effect social change. I also think that this just sets a great example for girls who might want to pursue a career in architecture and gives them a great set of role models to look up to as well. I am very proud to attend a university that makes an effort to include all different types of people through events like this one.
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