Round three of a series of seminars on Architectural Practice + Work/Life Demands taking place in Sydney on March 7 will focus on the mechanics of maternity and paternity leave. It will look at how to achieve an elegant return — how it all works, who it’s working for, stories from those making it work and a discussion on what it costs practice.

Architecture & Design spoke to Tarsha Finney, senior lecturer at the University of Technology, Sydney, about the challenges of paid maternity and paternity leave, how much it can cost and the benefits.

Can you tell me about some examples of firms which are using maternity and paternity leave successfully?

It's important to note that the problem of women's participation in architectural practice is not simply about parental leave and if it's available. The problem is much more complex.

If we look at the issue of parental leave — it is the issue of paid leave. Anyone can ask for time off for the birth of a baby and they do — but the question is does the practice offer paid parental leave as part of a standard employment agreement that is over and above what the federal government has just introduced? At the moment there aren't that many firms that offer paid leave as part of a standard employment contract. Within academia, and I know the unions have fought very hard for this, we get 20 weeks — five months at full pay or 40 weeks at half pay.

There is also the question of equity of access and support — are men being as supported within the culture of the organisation in a request of parental leave and part time or flexible work as women are? This is critical. This issue is everyone’s problem: women cannot carry it alone.

There are no easy solutions. We need to look at how other professions are dealing with it and consider very carefully what makes architecture very specific in these terms such that at the moment, it seems so difficult. Meanwhile, we still have a disappointingly few women in the over 35 category in practice and very few applicants for positions in the over 35 group.

How much can it cost a firm?

I think we can assume this: it won’t cost as much to address this as a profession as it will to continue to lose such a significant number of our university graduates from the profession by the time they’re 10/15 years out.

There’s an in-depth ARC funded study being undertaken at the moment, led by Dr Naomi Stead and Professor Sandra Kaji-O’Grady with others — and in collaboration with the Australian Institute of Architects, Architecture Media, BVN Architecture, Bates Smart Architects and PTW Architects. It will look at how gender and the workplace intersect in positive ways and in ways that may slow women’s career progression. This work will go a huge way to clarifying these issues.

We have had equity of gender graduations for the last 20 years, in fact at times, there have been more women graduating than men - and women are doing better in their studies than men. But by the time you get to board level and you look around at who is on it and registered, you’ll find that less then one per cent of individuals sitting at that table are women.

For the past 10 years or so there has been a general sense that these inequities would change with time as women worked their way through, but what is happening right now is that things are in fact going backwards (this is actually a general trend across all professions I believe). Partly this seems to be because it is so difficult to manage the demands of small children and an inelastic practice culture.

“In spite of his expertly honed tantrum-throwing skills, she remained transfixed by her slick new kitchen appliances”. http://unhappyhipsters.com/page/21 image via UTS

What are some of the main objections about PAID maternity and paternity leave in the industry?

I think the objections come less from the issue of the leave itself, but from a perception of the cost first, and secondly, the perception that on return, individuals working part-time are less committed to the job than those working full-time. The other issue is that most firms really don't make much profit so the industry is very low paid and unstable across the board, which is another reason firms avoid any extra entitlements.

How long do you think it will take until maternity and paternity leave is a common part of the architectural industry?

One of the interesting things about this seminar series has been the incredible response we’re getting from women particularly but also men. There’s this sense of overwhelming relief that people are being given permission to speak about this stuff in the workplace with a sense of entitlement. The demands of practice and raising small children are just huge and there hasn’t been a sense before that we need to sit down and work it out. Rather, it’s been something that women primarily have dealt with on their own with a huge sense of conflict of loyalty and guilt, when really, it’s a management issue.

Go to www.utsarchitecture.net to register for the event.