Constant gender equality debate in Denmark | arkitektnytt.no
Basic inequality
Lene Espersen, CEO of Danske Arkitektvirksomheder, says Byrummonitor that she is happy to be held in her ears.
– I think it is good that someone constantly pushes and breathes in our necks and says that we must focus on this, she says.
In March last year, the trade association launched the handbook “Personnel policy against sexual harassment”, and six pages of guidelines for how to handle sexual documents in the workplace.
But according to Lene Espersen, it is important to do something about the more fundamental differences between women and men in the architectural industry. Before Christmas, the organization therefore set up the committee «Diversity in the architectural industry», which will first and foremost look at different opportunities for women and men to become partners and take part in the management of Danish architectural offices.
– There are a number of female leaders who are also well-known names in the Danish architecture debate, but apart from them, there are huge structural challenges. We know that more women are still educated in academic schools, so it is a huge problem that not more of them arise as owners of farms, Espersen told Byrummonitor, which must also look at problems related to sexual harassment in the industry. .
Danske Ark has set aside DKK 50,000 for the committee’s work, which, among other things, will go to quantitative and qualitative surveys in the form of statistics and interviews with managers.
Masculine self-understanding
Most Danish architectural firms are primarily or exclusively suitable for men. I a debate post in January, Katja Viltoft, chairman of Danske Arkitektvirksomheder, pointed out that among the 40 largest architectural offices in Denmark, there is only one office where the majority is owned by one woman.
That woman is Dorte Mandrup, who herself contributes to the debate in a comment in the newspaper Berlingsketogether with the general manager of the office, Frants Nielsen.
«The masculine self-understanding that exists in the world of architecture can make it very difficult to break through and be taken seriously for women. It is power and differences in power that create the possibility for a sexually boundless culture to emerge. It is power and power relations that determine how far forward in the bus women can get. And we will never get rid of the symptoms of sexism until we have parted from the different power relations “, writes Mandrup, who believes that it is a sign of change.