Designing Women: 'There's an influx of more women coming in, but the hurdles haven't changed,' says Rosa Sheng, an architect with Bohlin Cywinski Jackson in San Francisco. Jason Henry for The Wall Street Journal

Despite historically high numbers of women entering the field of architecture, top-tier positions are still dominated by men.

More women than ever are applying to become architects, but far fewer attain their license or reach leadership positions in their firms, according to two industry reports.

The percentage of female applicants to the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards, the organization that administers the architecture exam, has hovered at 40% since 2012, the highest rate in the group's history. Less than 10% of applicants were women 30 years ago, the report shows.

But the American Institute of Architects, the largest group of licensed U.S. architects, shows that only 19% of about 81,000 members were women as of June, up from 11% in 1994.

"There's still a glass ceiling, ironically, in architecture," said Rosa Sheng, senior associate at Bohlin Cywinski Jackson in San Francisco and chairwoman of the Missing 32% Project, a group that promotes equitable treatment of all architects. "There's an influx of more women coming in, but the hurdles haven't changed," she said. It takes roughly 12 years to become a licensed architect, according to NCARB....Continue Reading

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