Reclaiming the Passive Voice is a research study about healing patriarchy. Grounded in the subject of gender equality in the profession of landscape architecture, the project explores the collective psychological imbalances that shape our current social and ecological crises and the underestimated value of individual lives, voices, and experiences.
Inspired by The Missing 32%, a gender equity initiative created by the AIA in 2012, this project explores the missing voices of women in landscape architecture. These voices are not found in statistics or equity campaigns but in the act of giving space to the stories of women who have left, questioned their careers, or found alternative paths beyond the traditions of the profession. In a patriarchal society, what is deemed “valuable” feeds a cycle of normative conditions, but by seeking out the most “unvaluable” stories in the eyes of a wounded system (i.e., the neglected, mundane, or unorthodox), we make these stories invaluable and heal an old paradigm of conditional worthiness.
Join Van Thi Diep in this online presentation and discussion to see how a paradigm shift in the way we see nature, place, research, and professionalism can help create a more harmonious world.
Acknowledgments: This research has benefited from the funding provided by the Landscape Architecture Canada Foundation (LACF) through an Annual Grant and the Gunter Schoch Bursary. I am grateful for LACF for this support.
Download the Full Research Report and the CLC Principles Paradigm Shift Infographic