Hello everyone, and thanks for becoming part of Parlour this year. Along with our very best wishes for the festive season we thought we’d post an update on Parlour activities so far, and on things coming up.
We have been delighted by the interest in Parlour since we launched in May. It took off faster than we expected and continues to garner more and more interest – we seem to have struck a chord with a large number of women, and quite a few men too.
We wanted to encourage and facilitate a more intelligent and informed conversation about gender equity in architecture. This has worked – we are seeing the beginnings of a civil and constructive discussion and we look forward to more in the future.
Some numbers. So far Parlour has been visited by 23,555 people from 136 countries and 1,958 cities. Just over 60% of these visitors are from Australia, and 40% of them have been to the site multiple times. We have also had 1,235 people join the ‘Parlour community’ by subscribing to the site.
But, amazing though these numbers seem, the anecdotal feedback has been even more heartening. Many people have told us how important Parlour is to them. We have heard some wonderful stories and some heart-breaking ones too.
Parlour survey no. 1: Where Do All the Women Go? generated a huge amount of interest. 1,200 women responded and we now have a vast amount of data, and many, many more fascinating stories. We had hoped to have the first set of results for you by the end of the year. Unfortunately we won’t make it – working through the responses has been a huge amount of time, but we will have first findings up for you in the new year.
Parlour survey no. 2: And What About the Men? is open at the moment. Over 700 men have responded to this so far – and it looks like there will be some fascinating material in those results also, and some very interesting comparisons to be made. This survey is still open, so please encourage the architectural men in your life to fill it in if they haven’t already done so.
Marion’s List. This new section on Parlour will provide a public listing for the women of Australian architecture and is currently being built. We’ll let you know when it is live, and we hope many of you women will be interested to participate.
Transform. We are planning a one-day symposium, which will be an opportunity to discuss change in the profession – in our own careers, in our workplaces, in our institutions and in architecture as a discipline and as a practice. This will be held in Melbourne on 30 May, 2013, the day before the Australian Institute of Architects national conference. We’ll send more details as they come available.
Policy. We are working with the Australian Institute of Architects on a new national equity policy, and will be undertaking wide consultation on this throughout the new year. Stand by for your opportunity to have a say: on how greater gender equity can be encouraged, enshrined and protected in our profession.
Equity and Diversity in the Australian architecture profession: women, work and leadership is the larger research project of which Parlour is the public face. Led by Dr Naomi Stead and funded by the Australian Research Council under the Linkage scheme, the project is now more than halfway complete. We will keep posting research findings on Parlour as they become available.
We have had some wonderful contributions to Parlour so far, from a wide range of people. If you would like to write a piece for Parlour, or contribute in other ways, do get in touch – you can email us at hello@parlour.org.au
Thanks for everyone’s input, support and interest. We hope you have a lovely festive season and look forward to more Parlour action next year.
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