Beginning my career as an architect in Canada, my worldview of gender roles within the workplace took on a distinctly North American perspective. I joined B+H almost 20 years ago as the first female principal. Back in 2002, seeing a female principal at the helm of an architecture firm was still rare. So much so that, in the beginning, many staff?both female and male?assumed I was responsible for the firm?s Human Resources in addition to running projects. While the role of good HR leadership cannot be understated, I simply did not have the training for that job!
Soon after joining, I relocated to China to oversee the firm?s business operations and expansion in Asia. As any big move dictates, there was a new culture to learn, new attitudes to understand and various nuances to being a woman in the workplace that I was challenged with. This included a prevalence of networking events that also functioned as male bonding rituals. Women, like myself, were not typically invited. For me, these cultural differences weren?t a deterrence but rather a driver. A driver to implement positive change and achieve success. Before many North American architecture firms had claimed a stake in the APAC market, I led our firm?s growth throughout the region, beginning with our Shanghai studio, by establishing local, on-the-ground teams supported by B+H?s network of international experience and global design standards to transform the urban fabric of the new markets we were entering. Today, there a...