Women@Work
'Women@Work'| is an innovative British Council initiative linking women professionals in North Africa and the Middle East with their counterparts in the UK.
It is designed to support professional women in their working lives, through international exchanges and the development of networking and mentoring support. Professions involved include judges (Egypt), filmmakers (Tunisia), sportswomen (Morocco) and architects (Palestine).
Women in Architecture| (WiA) is an external network that works closely with Architects for Change.
Palestinian Exchange
Palestinian Exchange 2008
Copyright: Noor Khatib
The British Council selected ‘Women in Architecture’ as a ‘Women@Work’ partner on the strength of their established track record in the UK, and ability to assemble a talented, open-minded and resourceful team to host women architects from Palestine in London in 2007, and to make an exchange visit in 2008.
Pamela Edwards describes her experiences of Palestine and Jordan during the ‘Women@Work’ exchange visit:
“None of us had visited Palestine before and, although we had been working closely with the British Council to agree both itinerary and visit security, setting off on our visit in July felt like something of a step into the unknown. We need not have worried. Our welcome was warm and the programme of visits and meetings very professionally managed.
Our six days as ‘working guests’ of the British Council and their local partner, the Engineering Association of East Jerusalem were revealing, challenging, enjoyable, inspiring, unsettling and thought provoking – and always felt worthwhile. We met architects, researchers, students and academics, and visited universities, architectural projects and regeneration programmes in East Jerusalem and Ramallah, Nablus, Bethlehem, Hebron and Jenin.
While our British Council brief was strictly non-political, as we travelled around it was impossible to ignore the destructive impact of the West Bank occupation on communities and on professional, academic and personal lives – from the checkpoints and the segregation wall, to the expanding settlements and restricted access to roads and freedom to travel.
Energy and progress
But amid much that was dispiriting, we encountered great energy and commitment to overcoming difficulties. External partnerships with Italian and UK universities, and German and Scandinavian NGOs were everywhere apparent, and seen as both keys to progress and windows into a wider world from which Palestinians feel increasingly isolated.
Online learning, and exchanges between university teachers to support curricular development, fulfil similar connecting roles. And with 40 per cent of architectural graduates unemployed, there is clear enthusiasm for external CPD partnerships and international work experience and sabbatical placements.
From Palestine we moved on to a women architects’ regional networking event in Jordan, where we discovered how women architects in the Middle East – often frustrated by lack of opportunities to travel – are seizing the current exodus of male architects to lucrative work in the Gulf as a chance to lead on projects at home. Outcomes here included: a commitment to e-networking and mentoring; a demand for a new interactive area of the British Council ‘Women@Work’ website; plus some possible joint projects and further professional exchanges.
Pamela Edwards is a former member of RIBA Education staff, and joined the ‘Women@Work’ programme as WiA/RIBA/British Council support and liaison.
This page is adapted from an article featured in the RIBA International Newsletter, October 2008.