In South Africa, during August, the social and news wires are overwhelmed with a proliferation of content focused on women, hooked on to the annual commemoration of Women’s Day on 9 August. Every year we discuss how we can join in with a post that reads “Happy Women’s Day” or a variation thereof. Every year, we agree that the history of the commemoration is a vital reminder of how important women’s voices are in driving change. But we also agree that women’s contribution to our business, industry and society needs to be acknowledged, recognised, celebrated and exposed on every day of the year.

The South African Council for the Architectural Profession’s (SACAP) 2023/24 annual report shows that there are fewer than 12 000 built environment professionals in the country, incorporating architects, technologists and draughtspeople, from students through to professionals. There were just 379 new registrations in the last year, far less than the 744 recorded in 2019/20. There are important questions to be asked about the state of our profession. Why this growth is so stilted? And how can we collectively address the equitable make up of our industry, with Black registered professionals at just 33%? However, in this article, the primary concern is this: only 28% of registered professionals are women.

The built environment shapes every aspect of human life. We live, work, play, connect, sleep, heal, learn and love in the spaces created by architects, urban designers and interior designers. Designers have a unique opportunity and ability to express our creative and technical expertise. We have the privilege to use design as a tool to improve the human experience and the power to shape how people move through and experience the world. With that power comes an important responsibility.

Women respond to design with a unique perspective. We bring our lived experiences, cultural understanding and problem-solving approaches, often challenging conventional thinking and identifying innovative solutions. And yet, we are woefully under-represented in our industry.

As an industry, it’s crucial to shift that. It’s important that women across the profession know not only that they have a voice but that their voices will be heard. This means ensuring that women are not merely present in our profession, but are valued, empowered and recognised for their integral contribution to every aspect of our work.

To achieve structural change, there needs to be a greater alignment between the annual rhetoric of empowering women with the practical business decisions required to ensure that women are fully represented in the boardroom, in the studio and on site. Introducing, nurturing and supporting greater diversity in our studios invites broader perspectives. These insights can infuse our designs, enhance our creativity and develop more effective designers.

There are three ways to achieve this.

First, through the adoption of intentional recruitment and retention strategies, as well as targeted career progression processes, so that women can clearly see a career trajectory with reliable prospects for advancement.

Second, women within the industry need to raise as they rise, showing the next generation that advancement is not only possible but is a given. Initiatives like the Go For Gold education to employment programme, among others, are a good start. If young girls interested in STEM subjects see women working in the field, they’ll have a better chance of seeing themselves in the field too. The principle applies throughout the career path from undergraduate to Partner or Director.

While the third element is more intangible, it relates to the most egregious aspect of our industry. It involves a systemic shift in the way that women are spoken to, spoken about and regarded. The old boys’ club of exclusion, locker room “jokes” and discriminatory disregard needs to be consigned to industry history. Women in every studio will have stories about being patronised, rejected or dismissed. Studio leaders need to start calling out sexist behaviour and being explicit in our rejection of the patronising attitudes that have been tolerated for decades.

dhk is one of the largest studios in Africa; one of very few that employ more than 20 people, defined by the South African Institute of Architects (SAIA) as a macro practice. As a highly visible leader in the field, we are acutely aware of our responsibility to show our commitment to this cause. We are proud of our people – of which half are women. Our Managing Director is a woman, nearly half of our management team are women, and some of our largest projects are run by all-women teams. That said, we acknowledge that there’s still work to do to create our own ripple of change. We’re actively working to address these issues, in philosophy and practice, throughout the studio.

This article is designed to be a call to industry to raise our collective voices to bring about change, just as Lilian Ngoyi, Rahima Moosa, Helen Joseph, Sophie Williams-DeBruyn and thousands of others did in 1956. After all, in the same way we intentionally design spaces for people, we need to be intentional about how we design spaces in our studios for women to rise and to thrive.