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RADAR
FEATURES
COMMENT
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As I read the women architects’
responses to the “Going Places” survey in
the Jan/Feb 2006 issue of Architecture
Australia during my lunchbreak today, I
could not help but pause and consider
my own career and future opportunities.
I am a 24-year-old female graduate
architect with one year’s experience in a
four-to-five-person firm in Western
Australia. As I have recently got married
after graduating from university, there
have been subtle and unsubtle queries
from well-meaning family, friends and
acquaintances about the possibility of
impending motherhood. They all assume
I am going to take the next step after
marriage, which is children. I am known
in the workplace and my circle of friends
as an ambitious and conscientious person
who survived five consecutive years of
architecture study dotted with casual
retail employment, started full-time
work the following year, got engaged
several weeks later, got married six
months later, and bought a house three
months after that.
Having completed one year of
architectural practice and gained a little
bit more confidence and understanding
about the industry, I am stepping back
and taking stock of what has happened
over the last hectic six years and what
lies ahead career-wise and family-wise.
I want to establish my own practice in
the future after gaining more experience
and registering as an architect, yet want
to have children around the same time.
We are discussing such issues as when
to have children, how can we afford a
family, how do we maintain our jobs,
where do we want our respective careers
to go, what city and country do we want
to live in, my career opportunities within
my current workplace, and so on.
I found the variety of responses in the
article extremely relevant and somewhat
reassuring to a young female architect.
I most definitely desire and attempt to
create a balance between home and work
life, and will compromise work
responsibilities should my family
relationships suffer. I finished reading the
article with a sense of relief that other
women are dealing with the same issues
and have acknowledged the difficulties
they have faced as women architects.
It also made me question how I would
structure the workplace and employees
when I get the opportunity to take a
management role in a company or in my
own business.
CATHERINE TAN
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Copyright © 2010 Architecture Media Pty Ltd
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