WxLA - Champions for Equality in Landscape Architecture

Honor Award

Communications

United States
WxLA

Starting in 2018, WxLA began advocacy for gender justice, growing from five founders to a movement within the landscape architecture profession toward equality. With its first act—a resolution geared toward addressing gender parity through commitments to change—and continuing in impactful research and messaging, WxLA has investigated gender-based workplace challenges and opened new avenues toward parity. These efforts include collaborations with the VELA Project and the Wikimedia Project; Instagram takeovers; a scholarship for 18 young professionals to attend conferences; and a digital toolkit of resources aimed at a better, more equitable path for the profession.

- 2021 Awards Jury

Project Credits

The VELA Project, Collaborator

The Wikipedia Project, Collaborator

The Black History Month Takeover Team, Collaborator

Landscape Architecture Magazine, Collaborator

World Landscape Architecture Magazine, Collaborator

Llamo Collectivo, Collabortor

The Woland Foundation, Collaborator

Project Statement

Inspired by civic action, equality movements around the world, and the personal experience of its founders, WxLA emerged in 2018 as a vocal advocacy initiative for gender justice in landscape architecture. WxLA raises awareness for the challenges that prevent women from reaching their highest potential, illuminates the barriers to women, provides strategies for change and celebrate new models of working. In three potent years, WxLA spearheaded action-oriented initiatives such as the (first-ever) Women’s Landscape Equality (re)Solution, a dynamic media presence including an instagram campaign and website, a successful WxLA Scholarship and a Toolkit for a Gender Just Workplace.

From five founders to thousands of followers and volunteers, WxLA is a mobilized and empowered movement, providing a voice for women in the profession, a mechanism for enacting change and an inspiration to legacy and next-generation practitioners alike. Awarding these efforts will continue the momentum and send a message about the ASLA’s commitment to equality.

Project Narrative

Inspired by increased civic action, energetic equality movements around the world and the personal experiences of its founders, WxLA emerged in 2018 as a vocal advocacy initiative for gender justice in landscape architecture. WxLA raises awareness for the challenges that prevent women from reaching their highest potential, illuminates the barriers women face, provides strategies for change and celebrates new working models.

Using a variety of online platforms, social networks and supportive industry publications as well as an entirely-volunteer leadership and membership following, WxLA is using contemporary tools to build a coalition for change. In its potent first three years, WxLA spearheaded action-oriented initiatives including the following:

Writing and Telling Our Stories
WxLA’s story begins with four senior female professionals leaving leadership positions in large and internationally recognized landscape firms to begin their own practices in and around 2017. Recognizing the similarities in their own personal experiences of gender-based challenges in the workplace and an emerging trend of new women-led practices, a senior male professional gathered these women and facilitated a panel discussion at the 2018 Conference on Landscape Architecture in Philadelphia.

Eager to have broader impacts beyond the benefits of a one-time discussion, this group coalesced as the founders of WxLA, a name that emerged organically through early actions. Committed to an action-oriented, collaborative and effective long-term process, one of WxLA’s foundational efforts was the creation of the Women’s Landscape Equality (re)Solution, launched at the panel discussion. Immediately following, the founders captured this organic evolution and formation in writing in a feature article called “The Bigger Time” in Landscape Architecture Magazine published in April of 2019.

Though nascent in its life as an advocacy organization, WxLA, its stories and its coalition have been featured in numerous national and international publications including the New York Times, Landscape Architecture Magazine, World Landscape Architecture Magazine and The Dirt. Its founders and allies have been invited to speak at and led discussions at universities and conferences around the country including The University of Texas at Austin, the Florida ASLA Annual Meeting, the New York ASLA Annual Meeting, LABASH 2020, the ASLA Conference on Landscape Architecture in 2018, the ReVision Conference of 2020, Ottawa ASLA, the Victor Stanley Lecture Series and the Mind the Gap Lecture Series at the Stuart Weitzman School of Design.

Creating Advocacy Tools for Gender Justice
WxLA created the first-ever Women’s Landscape Equality (re)Solution. It begins, “As landscape architects, we know that diversity brings life, health, and wonder to our planet. We also know that where ecosystems have declined in diversity, restoration takes active intervention. Now is time for landscape architecture to address gender parity in the profession through a conscientious, courageous, and active declaration of change.” This one-page document, posted to change.org in the Fall of 2018, provides a summary of the challenges to women in leadership and a straight-forward series of commitments for practitioners and firm leaders to read and enact. To date, the (re)Solution has been shared across online platforms, publications like Landscape Architecture Magazine and on firm websites around the country. To date, the (re)Solution has garnered over 5,000 signatures.

In 2021, WxLA launched its “Tools for a Gender Just Workplace”. Developed first as a presentation for state chapter engagement, the toolkit provides tangible and actionable research and best practices aimed at both firm leaders and team members alike. The work went on to be published in article form in World Landscape Architecture during Women’s History Month. The toolkit is framed through organizing themes: transparent business, flexible human resources, systems of recourse and gender-just culture. It both summarizes the attrition of women from the profession, acknowledges the specific challenges they face and offers a concrete and more equitable path forward.

Building a Coalition Using Online Platforms
WxLA uses a few strategic tools to spread its message, share information and create dialogue among its coalition. Following on the success of the (re)Solution, the WxLA team launched a vibrant instagram site that has since hosted a number of energetic campaigns. As one example, a call for nominations led to over 50 women-led landscape practices being celebrated on the site. Each firm profile included its leadership, mission, and reasons for being lauded as innovative. As another example, WxLA invited selfies of followers wearing their custom-designed WxLA-branded t-shirts and sweatshirts. Hundreds of these selfies have been shared with thoughts, ideas and empowering messages as a lead up to different events or online happenings.

WxLA further leveraged its instagram platform to raise awareness of other women-led initiatives. Over a week in July of 2019, The VELA Project (an initiative focused on visualizing equality in landscape architecture through its own data-driven analysis) shared its findings. Over a week in December of 2019, the Wikipedia Project showcased its work researching, writing and contributing profiles of women landscape architects to Wikipedia. During Black History Month in February of 2020 and 2021, volunteers populated the WxLA instagram feed with inspiring posts and stories about black women who have helped to share the profession and inspire us all, and particularly women of color. On International Women’s Day of 2021, WxLA hosted a takeover of National ASLA’s instagram, sharing its work and research with ASLA’s 60,000 followers. To date, WxLA’s instagram has over 2,000 followers.

WxLA’s online presence is enhanced by its website: wxlandscape.org. The website offers vivid imagery of the coalition, information about initiatives, a summary of the organization’s back story and a tribute to its extensive donor base. From the website, visitors can also find and explore the various advocacy tools (like the reSolution, recent articles and publications), learn about the scholarship and its application process and visit photography and podcasts from various convenings. The website also allows visitors to sign up to stay informed of upcoming initiatives via quarterly newsletters.

Investing in the Next Generation of Leaders
Feeling the need to reach next-generation practitioners, the WxLA created a WxLA Scholarship program in 2019. Fundraising over $30,000 via a GoFundMe campaign, garnering another $10,000 of in-kind donations and generating thousands more on a custom t-shirt campaign, the scholarship enabled eighteen young professional women to attend the Conference on Landscape Architecture in San Diego (2019), the ReVision Conference (2020) and a series of mentoring events and smaller educational forums. Two distinct and diverse world-class juries of professionals evaluated and selected the scholars from over 100 applicants from around the world. Scholars are enlisted and sometimes volunteer to participate in events - including takeovers, workshops and presentations - to advance awareness and help grow empowerment.

In addition to its own advocacy, WxLA leaders and coalition members have also assisted other burgeoning and forming initiatives. Invited by ASLA, the WxLA founders presented the challenges and successes of starting an advocacy initiative with emergent groups of LatinX and LGBTQX professionals. WxLA has supported grant writing, fellowship applications and nominations for a number of its scholars and affiliates. Further, it continues to use its online platform to shine its light on the good work of other mission-aligned initiatives like NAMLA (National Association of Minority Landscape Architects), BlackLAN, Llama Colectivo, the VELA Project, the Woland Foundation and the JSR Foundation.

From five founders to thousands of followers and volunteers, WxLA is a mobilized and empowered movement, providing a voice for women in the profession, a mechanism for enacting change and an inspiration to legacy and next-generation practitioners alike. Awarding these efforts will continue the momentum and send a message about the ASLA’s commitment to equality.