In line with the International Women’s Day (IWD) campaign theme ‘Inspire Inclusion’, Hayball hosted a breakfast where we celebrated the progress made towards our gender-inclusive targets.
Hayball and Champions of Change Coalition
Hayball hugely supports the WGEA initiatives that have allowed greater transparency around the gender pay gap, and we also acknowledge that we have more work to do to continually improve this. However, we are also proud of what we have achieved over the recent period in terms of gender equity.
Significantly, we have recently achieved one of our 40/40/20 gender equity targets. Of the 33% of our staff who are owners of Hayball, over 40% of the owners are women, and over 40% of shares by value are owned by women. Principal Kit Ku said, “We have achieved a lot in recent years around gender equity, with strong female representation across the business and our leadership cohort. Achieving this ownership milestone is just one indicator of our Board’s ongoing commitment to gender equity.”
Insights were also shared from the Power and Privilege Discussion Paper (to be published in 2024) that was led by Hayball Champions of Change Bianca Hung, Dave Tordoff and Kit Ku, with Jess Murphy of the Champions of Change Coalition and Justine Clark of Parlour. This paper explores why diversity across the architecture profession is critical – not only for the practices, but for the society we design for – as well as informed steps we can take to respond to inequity and the structures that support it. “The paper aims to disrupt affinity bias to increase diversity within our profession, especially at the leadership level,” said Kit.
Architects Without Frontiers
Associate Emma Parkinson presented Hayball’s Climate Change Resilience Centre for the Good Samaritan Inn, a women’s refuge and crisis centre. This is our latest project working with Architects Without Frontiers (AWF), an organisation that seeks to improve the built environment of communities in need. As an Network Partner, we are a strong advocate for the work that AWF does. Our interest in Social Value aligns closely with AWF’s belief that architecture can be an ethical tool for social change. On this project, we also worked with Live & Learn Environmental Education, an organisation that focuses on six key areas, including equality and inclusion, to strengthen community.
Source: Live & Learn Environmental Education website
Hayball is always seeking to further understand our current professional context and establish steps towards positive change. Kit Ku said, “While we celebrate Hayball’s gender equity achievements, we also acknowledge that we still have a lot of work to do to address the gender pay gap and we’ll continue to improve that over time with policies put in place.”
