Between 1898, when Ethel Charles entered the RIBA’s register, and 1998, when the Arb’s first data is available, the make-up of the architectural profession remained largely male.

In 100 years we went from a single female architect to women making up just 11% of the register. Perhaps this is unsurprising. Until fairly recently social attitudes have not been that kind to women in “male” professions. Indeed, American architect Bruce Goff (who only died in 1989) was quoted as saying: “Women are as imaginative as men; they just have the wrong kind of imagination for architecture.”

The statistics on women in architecture since 1998 are more encouraging. We have gone from 11% of the profession to 28% and new applicants to the register are now 44% female (as opposed to 23% in 1998). Clearly, attitudes about what gender an architect “should” be have changed.

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