Just 25 per cent of participants at this year's Venice Architecture Biennale are women and only one third are from outside Europe and the USA, despite making "a conscious effort" to increase diversity.
Figures provided by the biennale, which opens to the public on Saturday, show there are 72 female participants and 213 male participants.
Of 126 participating architecture firms, 67 per cent are from Europe and the USA. Just six per cent are from Africa and 12 per cent from Asia.
South Americans make up eight per cent and firms from "Paesi Arabi" make up four per cent.
Architecture has not been open to diversity until recently, Sarkis said
Curator Hashim Sarkis told Dezeen the event "could be doing better in upcoming biennales" to increase diversity. "It's a profession that has not been open to diversity until recently, and we have a long way to go to get there," he said.
A spokesperson for the biennale said the number of women has increased compared to the last biennale in 2018, but could not give details.
"The proportion compared to 2018 requires extensive research that we cannot do in these days," the spokesperson said.
Diversity a central theme of 2021 biennale
This is despite Sarkis, a Lebanese architect and dean of architecture and planning at MIT, making diversity a central theme of the biennale.
The 17th edition of the show, which is the most important event of its type in the world, is titled "How will we live to...