Developing an organic strategy of change to challenge gendered stereotypes around the technological (in)ability of women in architecture

Architecture is characterised by a lack of women in the profession and a significant drop–out after qualification all over Europe, despite decades of policies of inclusion. The practice of architecture requires the use of specialised instruments and technologies that often collide with the social assumptions and stereotypes around the conflicted relationship between women and technology. Women are socially perceived as inadequate users of technology in terms of: knowledge of the specific characteristics of objects, ability to use an instrument other than for its basic outcomes, and capacity to use technology in collaboration with co–workers. What can be done to challenge this widespread social perception? The suggestion offered here is to develop an organic strategy of combined actions able to foster a simultaneous change on different levels: individual, relational, cultural and structural. The paper offers an outline of a possible framework of analysis to be initially applied to the architectural field as a specific case study, with the possibility to subsequently adapt it to other STEM sectors. The framework draws upon the concepts of Technologically Dense Environments and Integral Theory’s AQAL method, used respectively to collect and organise empirical data.