Mainebiz

V O L . X X I V N O. X V F O C U S LEFT TO RIGHT: At SMRT, Alyssa Phanitdasack, an architectural designer; Ellen Belknap, president; Becca Casey, architect; and Nicole Rogers, architect. P H O T O / T I M G R E E N WAY J U LY 2 3 , 2 0 1 8 16 B ecca Casey traces her love of architecture back to fourth grade, when she and her best friend would have fun "redesigning" shopping malls they had visited. "Maybe we were on to something," she says. Growing up in a family of contrac- tors, builders and painters also whetted her interest in the profession, as did an aptitude test she took in high school: "I was like, yep, that'll work." After earning a master's in archi- tecture from Tulane University in 1996 where she also earned a bachelor's degree, Casey initially felt she had to prove herself on every job, with contrac- tors "practically rolling their eyes" at a woman in her twenties telling them how to build something. She's now a senior health care archi- tect at SMRT Architects and Engineers in Portland, Maine's only large archi- tectural fi rm led by a woman. Headed by Ellen Belknap since 2004, it's also Maine's largest architecture fi rm. "It is something that makes me proud," says Casey, a trailblazer in her own right as Maine's fi rst architect credentialed in the global WELL Building Standard for advancing health and well-being in buildings. Lonely at the top Architecture remains a male-dominated fi eld, starting in education where three out of fi ve students are men as shown in a 2014 nationwide study by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture. e same report found that one in four working architects and fewer than one in fi ve deans are women, nearly four decades after that gender barrier was broken. e higher in the profession you go, the smaller the female proportion, all the way up to the highest honors. ACSA research found that while women have been increasingly recognized since the 1980s, they received only 18% of top awards between 2010 and 2014. To learn the reasons behind the gen- der imbalance, the American Institute of Architects — a Washington, D.C.- based professional organization with 2% female membership — conducted a gender diversity study in 201. Half of the women surveyed said that women are less likely to achieve their career advancement goals. Of those who leave jobs in architecture, women are more likely to do so to start a family or to take a job outside the fi eld while men who leave are far more likely to pursue a more lucrative career. Women also reported a lower job satisfaction than men in many areas, eignin eignin eignin eignin women women women eignin eignin eignin eignin eignin eignin eignin women eignin eignin eignin eignin eignin eignin eignin women women women eignin eignin eignin eignin eignin eignin eignin women eignin eignin eignin eignin eignin eignin eignin women eignin eignin eignin eignin eignin eignin eignin women eignin eignin eignin eignin eignin eignin eignin women women women women women women women eignin eignin eignin eignin eignin eignin eignin women eignin eignin eignin eignin eignin eignin eignin women eignin eignin eignin eignin eignin eignin eignin women eignin eignin eignin eignin eignin eignin eignin women eignin eignin eignin eignin eignin eignin eignin women eignin eignin eignin eignin eignin eignin eignin women eignin eignin eignin eignin eignin eignin eignin women eignin eignin eignin eignin eignin eignin eignin Chipping away at architecture's glass ceiling

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