Architects' Journal survey says that two thirds of female architects experience some form of sexism over their career, with nearly a third reporting regular occurrences

Sexism is architecture: is it still rife? Photograph: Grant Smith / Alamy/Alamy

66% of female architects have experienced some form of sexism over their career, claims a survey from Architects' Journal, with 31% reporting monthly or quarterly occurrences. This is a rise from 58% when the survey first launched in 2011.

On top of this, 88% of women respondents felt that having children would hold them back in their career and 62% thought that the building industry still doesn't accept the authority of female architects.

Former RIBA president, Angela Brady, called the results "shocking" and said women needed to be particularly firm around the issue of equal pay. She urged women to talk about their salaries and be confident enough to push their employers on whether or not they were being paid the same as their male colleagues.

While 60% of female respondents earned less than £36,000, the opposite was true of the men - 60% of them earned more than £37,000. Brady feels that this pay discrepancy could be one of the reasons 88% of women felt that children put them at a disadvantage in their career.

"The average woman has a baby at 34, she's looking at returning to work ... and her entire salary is going on childcare, that makes it a difficult decision".

That 67% of male respondents felt that children did not give women a career disadvantage suggests that female architects returning to work are choosing to hide the pressures they're facing. One woman told the survey that she had never mentioned her children to her employer "for fear they would hinder my career".

Flexible working practices are offered but comments from the survey suggest that they're not always approved of.

"Flexible hours and part-time work are tolerated but not necessarily encouraged", was a typical comment. Another respondent said: "in our studio it is frowned upon by the director, as he claims we need to be available during the same periods as our clients. No other childcare support is offered. The fact that just 10% of our workforce is female speaks volumes".

If architecture wants to address the number of women leaving the profession, while 44% of architecture students are female just 12% of partners are women, it needs to do something quickly. Brady warns, "take a long hard look at your office and staff and see what you can do to make it better, because if you don't you will be named and shamed".

> via The Guardian