As we approach 2025 International Women’s Day, Parlour is delighted to launch the Parlour Data Bank! This provides access to detailed data on 100 years of architectural registration in Australia, and 40 years of architectural graduates. These data sets show that women have been ‘marching forward’ in Australian architecture for a century!
The Parlour Data Bank is the public release of detailed spreadsheets offering data by state and gender. Compiled by Gill Matthewson and colleagues over the last 13 years, the datasets incorporate earlier work by Julie Willis, who assembled the data on registered architects from 1924 until the mid-1990s, and Paula Whitman and colleagues who compiled data in the early 2000s. All this data has been a fundamental foundation for Parlour’s advocacy since the beginning.
This is painstaking, detailed work, requiring the use of many different sources, checking and cross-checking. Given the labour involved, we now share key collated data, along with sources and information about limitations and credits.
The spreadsheets offer material that other researchers can draw on – and data for everyone to explore!
There is much to find in the spreadsheets, and we encourage everyone to check out the summary charts and dig in! Items of interest include:
- The number of registered women hit triple digits in 1953 and four digits around 1997/98.
- The growth in registration numbers is particularly notable for women, who were long underrepresented in every statistical measure, despite representing over 40% of all graduates for decades.
- In recent years, women have been responsible for all the growth in the registers (Parlour Census Report).
- Women are now 50% of graduates, a figure that seems to be stabilising.
For detailed analysis and the contextualisation of the data, refer to the Parlour Census Report, 2001–2021, along with earlier analysis and commentary by Gill on the data section of the website.
This data reminds us that there have ALWAYS been women in Australian architecture. The stories of some of these women will be told later this year when Parlour launches a new podcast, with Julie Willis and Gill Matthewson conversing about some of the fascinating women from Australia’s architectural history. Stay tuned.
