While reading the Fawcett Society’s new report, commissioned by RIBA, “Build it together: Women’s experiences in architecture”, I found it alarming, and yet somehow unsurprising, how little had changed since the last RIBA report on women in architecture in 2015. Put aside the frankly shocking reports of sexual harassment, and many of the issues women face in the profession seem to point to poor workplace culture and lack of employment policies.

Whether this is simply a problem for women though, I am less certain. I think it is entirely possible that the Fawcett Society’s report has picked up on the structural problem of a profession dominated by tiny practices with a lack of support, fairly limited financial reward and a difficult market to operate in. Hien Nguyen reflected on this recently in her BD column, noting that architecture in the UK is now “increasingly defined by diminishing fees, increased costs, more liability, rising risk and a growing disconnect between architects and the institutions that represent them”.

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