Investigating the importance of women in leadership: case of an architectural organisation in KwaZulu-Natal.

Abstract

The built environment is customarily known to be a male-dominated industry. Sub-sector industries such as architecture, engineering and quantity surveying forms part of the greater built environment. Numerous studies indicates that the built environment has major gender imbalances. For instance, 25% of the architectural professions are female in South Africa. Women have been gradually entering the industry through proving their talent and passion in the recent years and their enrolment has been increasing. However, the number of women in architecture is still intractably low. Therefore, indicating a need for further research within the architectural industry. The study investigated the importance of women in leadership in the architectural profession and aimed to advance knowledge and evaluate the impact of women in architectural leadership. Simultaneously, the study did not intend to discredit men but rather pursue research that contributes to creating a more gender balanced industry. Research insight was gained through analysing leadership literature and gaining in depth knowledge of women in leadership and the challenges that women are accosted to. In addition, the leadership approaches that women deploy was explored. Furthermore, a mixed method research approach was employed for this study, consisting of a quantitative investigation on 40 people comprising of both male and females in the architectural profession and a qualitative investigation on women in the architectural industry. The samples were purposefully and conveniently sampled. The data was transcribed in a descriptive manner for the quantitative data set while a thematic analysis was utilised for the qualitative data set. The location of the study was an architectural organisation in KwaZulu-Natal. The findings indicated that major gender imbalances exist within the selected industry and various challenges that obstruct the success of women in architectural leadership such as lack of recognition and gender-based stereotypes. Furthermore, women in architecture deploy a more transformational and authentic style of leadership which was noted to be the most ideal form of leadership necessary for the architectural industry, therefore, confirming the importance of women in architectural leadership. Lastly, the study suggests recommendations to create a more gender balanced industry through including more women in leadership.