Career Barriers of Women Architects in the Construction Sector

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15320/ICONARP.2022.197%20

Keywords:

career barriers, male-dominated structure of the construction industry, women architects

Abstract

It has been determined that the existing studies in the literature about women architects have remained in the background or ignored in the historical process, there are barriers they have encountered in the sector, their visibility in the sector is low and they have left the profession of architecture over time. However, it has been observed that it has not been investigated whether the career barriers that female architects encounter differ according to their career stages. The aim of this research is to fill the knowledge gap identified in this field in the literature and to reveal the career barriers faced by women architects.

Quantitative research method was used in this study and data were collected by questionnaire method.

It has been understood that the glass ceiling and sexist attitudes, which are among the career barriers of female architects, differ according to career stages.

The limitations of the research are that the participation of the participants in the research is based on voluntariness, contacting people through online platforms due to Covid 19, the research is carried out in a limited time frame and the opinions of the participants are limited to the questions in the measurement tools.

Within the construction industry, women architects face career barriers throughout their careers. Ensuring that more women architects take part in the construction sector will be an important step in reducing or eliminating such barriers. However, making individual efforts to prevent these barriers faced by female architects during their careers will not produce a real solution.

The research is considered important in that it has not been investigated whether the career barriers found to be faced by female architects differ according to career stages and in this context, this study is the first of its kind.

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Author Biographies

Mevlüde Aydın, Uludağ University

Mevlüde Aydın, graduated from Bursa Uludag University, Department of Architecture in 2017 as an architect. She completed her master's thesis titled “Examination of Career Barriers of Female Architects” at Bursa Uludağ University in 2021. She has academic studies on social innovation, green buildings and women architects. She is a PhD student at Bursa Uludag University, Faculty of Architecture.

Yasemin Erbil, Uludağ University

Yasemin Erbil, received her B.Sci. degree in Architecture from Yildiz Technical University Faculty of Architecture, Department of Architecture in 1999. She received her M.Sci. degree in 2003 and PhD degree in 2010 from Bursa Uludag University. She is currently Professor at the Department of Architecture, Bursa Uludag University. She focusses on subjects: building technology, construction innovations, construction education, people in construction, building comfort and satisfaction. She has been teaching the courses “Architectural Design Studio”, “Building Construction”, “Integrated Design”, “Design/Built Projects in Architecture”, “Vertical Circulation Systems in Buildings”, “Refurbishment in Architecture”, “Details in Architecture”, “Architecture for Social Innovation”, “Detail Research in Architecture”, “Innovation Research in Construction”, “Design and Innovation”, “Architecture, Technology and Innovation”.

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Published

30-06-2022

How to Cite

Aydın, M., & Erbil, Y. (2022). Career Barriers of Women Architects in the Construction Sector. ICONARP International Journal of Architecture and Planning, 10(1), 136–157. https://doi.org/10.15320/ICONARP.2022.197

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