💡 Key takeaways:

• Lack of Diversity in Leadership: While there have been notable women in real estate leadership, such as Dottie Herman and Sherry Chris, the industry still needs more diversity. Many leadership roles remain predominantly male, with men occupying 75% of senior manager roles across all industries in the U.S.
• Income Inequality: There is a significant gender pay gap in real estate, with men earning 60% more than women in the same roles. Despite women making up the majority of real estate agents and loan officers, their earnings and representation in leadership are disproportionately lower.
• Barriers to Advancement: Women often face imposter syndrome and societal stereotypes that hinder their career growth. The belief that they must meet all qualifications before applying for promotions, unlike men who apply when meeting only 60% of the requirements, is a significant barrier.
• Real-Life Challenges: Women in real estate share experiences of gender bias and discrimination, such as being questioned about their marital status or pregnancy during interviews. These experiences highlight the ongoing challenges women face in achieving leadership roles.
• Actionable Strategies for Change: To support women in real estate, the industry should foster mentorship programs, encourage women to take credit for their ideas, and change organizational practices to create more inclusive environments. This includes providing opportunities for women to learn new skills, ensuring pay transparency, and promoting women in diverse roles beyond traditional HR and marketing positions.

➡️ Historical Context and Current Landscape

The B2B conferences of the real estate industry provide a good snapshot of how the landscape is evolving. These conferences have featured notable women speakers in the past — think icons such as Michael Saunders, Sherry Chris, Dottie Herman, and Pamela O’Connor. However, these were the same familiar faces that graced every event’s stage. These pioneers are wonderful examples of women’s leadership, but more diversity is still needed in the real estate industry While things have started changing now, it took a long time to get there.

➡️ Statistical Disparities

A majority of loan officers and agents are women, but the proportions look very different at the leadership level. Sixty-six percent of real estate sales representatives are women, but only a small fraction hold leadership positions. Men still occupy 75% of senior manager roles across all industries in the United States, according to S&P Global, while women hold only 8% of CEO positions at S&P 500 companies.

Hewlett Packard also conducted an internal review of promotions within the company, which revealed that women only applied for jobs if they met all the qualifications. In contrast, men applied for those promotions when they met 60% of the requirements.

➡️ Income Inequality

Not all jobs have the same earning power. According to a Forbes study, the largest gender pay gap is found among real estate brokers, with men earning 60% more than their female counterparts.

➡️ Barriers to Leadership

Dealing with Imposter Syndrome

As women, we have all dealt with imposter syndrome at some point during our careers. We often point fingers at the industry, but are we holding ourselves back by believing that we can’t achieve our goals?

Many of these beliefs are based on what society tells women about what they’re capable of, what their stereotypical roles are, and where they belong. While a lot of women are blocked from senior positions, there is also the reality that not many even make it to lower and entry-level managerial positions. The first step toward breaking the glass ceiling is for women to get on the ladder at all. And we need to give people more opportunities to move forward on that path.

The best way to overcome these barriers is to foster healthy conversations among women at all career stages about imposter syndrome. LeadingRE’s Chief Legal Officer Jessica Edgerton, for example, shares and discusses openly with her direct reports the tools they can use to help them feel more confident in their role.

The Different Forms of Imposter Syndrome

Imposter syndrome manifests itself in a variety of ways. The way you presented yourself, or felt like you had to present yourself, for instance. Dressing in a particular way to get further, such as wearing heels and a dress, and being agreeable was expected of women in the 1990s. A certain persona was required to get into the industry. 

Marty Reed (Chief Operating Officer at REcore Solutions) went through this experience when she was just starting out in the industry and interviewing. The moment she got her foot in the door, her skillset and accomplishments spoke for themselves, and she finally felt comfortable being herself.

Choosing to start a family during your career

There is also the issue of whether having children hinders women’s careers.

Local Logic’s SVP of Strategic Partnerships & Industry Relations Audrey Whittington was pregnant when she applied for her first B2B job as a loan officer. A man told her the company was not hiring pregnant women. The situation was murky back then, so it wasn’t clear whether or not he had the right to ask that question. However, that made her appreciate the man who wasn’t phased by her pregnancy and hired her a few months later, eventually becoming his top salesperson. 

Kathleen Wayson, VP of Industry Relations at Realtor.com, had small children when she interviewed for top leadership positions, and she didn’t feel hindered by that. At that time, she decided not to enter the workforce in a way that would take her away from her primary role at that time. 

There has been a significant change in the way we decide who stays home to take care of our children. Traditionally, that role belonged to women, but now parents make that decision based on a variety of factors, such as who earns the most money or who wants to be at home with their children. Today, a more even 50/50 split is possible, especially with paternity leave being almost as long as maternity leave.

➡️ Real-Life Industry Experiences and Initiatives

Marty Reed (Chief Operating Officer at REcore Solutions)

As a 35-year veteran of the real estate industry, Marty Reed began her career as an associate executive (AE). Both the Executive Committee and the Board of Directors interviewed her multiple times. As she waited to go into one of her interviews, she recognized a woman walking in as her builder’s wife. Afterward, Marty discovered that the board had asked the woman how she could afford to build a new home, without knowing whether she was married, engaged, or involved with anyone. There were 15 people in the room, including the youngest man in attendance who asked her if she was married. One of the older gentlemen in her Executive Committee interview asked her how she would respond or react if he asked her to fetch him a cup of coffee. Graceful in her response, she said that if she was on her way for a cup for herself, then she’d be happy to give him one too, and that she hoped that he’d do the same.

Celeste Starchild (President at InspectionGo)

Celeste has been working in the real estate industry for more than 20 years. Sitting in the back of the room at a Gathering of Eagles event, she could count how many women were in the audience on one or two hands. There were hundreds of men in attendance, most of them from brokerage firms. The sheer difference in numbers gave her the determination and drive to succeed, even at a younger age.

Kathleen Wayson (VP, Industry Relations at Realtor.com)

Kathleen has held a variety of roles in the industry, including real estate agent at the start of her career. In the following years, she worked for Celeste, where her insights into the company’s target audience helped them promote their product to them. Eventually, her role evolved to become more involved with MLSs. She noticed that the people around her doing all the work weren’t the same ones getting recognition and getting on stage.

Jessica Edgerton (Chief Legal Officer at LeadingRE)

As a former lawyer, Jessica brings a lot of cross-over experience since, historically, the legal industry has been heavily male-dominated, especially at the top. During law school, she was told she would have a much more successful career as a litigator if she wore a skirt. The last seven years of her career were spent working for a company that had Pamela O’Connor at the helm. Despite Pamela’s departure, her culture and legacy live on. Now that Paul Boomsma is the company’s CEO, he is extremely conscious of the importance of lifting up women and fostering a great culture for them. Jessica holds one of the company’s C-Suite positions along with Kate Reisinger, the COO. It is the responsibility of those in charge to look for ways to empower women, Jessica believes.

➡️ Actionable Strategies

Be Loud and Proud

What should you do if your male counterpart takes credit for your ideas? What are some ways you ensure your ideas are heard?

Celeste Starchild, President at InspectionGo, found herself in situations that made her realize that if she didn’t share her perspectives publicly, she wouldn’t be credited. She encountered a bad egg who funneled all of her ideas as their own and relayed them to senior management. Unless she took ownership, she risked being overlooked. It doesn’t matter if you say it aloud in a meeting or a Slack channel, expressing your opinion and ideas (and not letting others interrupt you!) is a hard, yet important step in your career growth. Take responsibility for the work you do and the ideas you come up with. You deserve that credit. And if someone takes credit for your idea, hold them accountable. Make it clear that they must follow through with the idea.

Lead by Example and Give Credit Where It’s Due

Don’t be afraid to speak up for yourself. Yet, at the same time, it is also important to acknowledge others’ ideas and share rightful credit when appropriate. When you bring up someone else’s idea, be sure you give credit where credit is due. No matter who you are addressing, whether it is your team or your boss, modeling how to operate with integrity requires putting the spotlight on those who deserve it. 

Change Organizational and Cultural Practices from the Top

An organization can create a culture that makes it easier for people to share ideas. Most meetings tend to favor the loudest person in the room, overshadowing the more timid members. Europe has a hand-raising culture, where you cannot talk unless you raise your hand, whether it’s Zoom or Google Meet. All participants get the opportunity to speak, which helps draw out ideas from people who might not be as comfortable speaking up in a group of people who are more senior than them, or women who are the only women in an all-male group.

There are many other ways to open up opportunities for people to be heard. Creating a “scratch pad” where everyone can write and contribute ideas will encourage more people to participate, resulting in a more diverse range of solutions.

Empower Through Mentorship and Build Other Women Up

Several organizations, including WomanUp! and RENEW, have created spaces for women to learn new skills and feel empowered in their careers. Community building, however, should begin within the workplace.

Leadership has the power to develop a strong sense of community within their company through mentorship, which is crucial, especially for people new to the market. As an example, organizations should demonstrate full transparency throughout their organization and publish data on pay equality as well as the level of equality. Are there the same number of men and women in management roles across the company, whether they are supervisors, managers, directors, vice presidents, or executives? These statistics can help you identify gaps within your organization, and determine the next steps you need to take.

Companies can also offer women opportunities to learn new skills and work on projects they haven’t had the chance to before to build confidence and guide them through the next phase of their careers.

Provide Intersectional Support

There is a need to look beyond women’s organizations and provide intersectional support to the much larger real estate minority communities. Minority groups need to be acknowledged and supported across the industry to change things. Unless we embrace women across all communities, we harm ourselves and women who are excluded from the conversation.

Open Up C-level Roles and Promote Women in Different Fields

In the past, women mostly occupied roles in HR and marketing. A growing number of women are taking on operational roles, such as COOs, which is great, but they are also perfectly capable of holding a CEO title. Increasing recognition of women at the CEO level is a positive sign for the industry.

It is also important to broaden your skill set beyond your current occupation. Having recently joined Lesbians Who Tech, Marty’s passion is mentoring and encouraging more women to enter the technical space. Seeing how capable women are, she emphasizes the importance of empowering other women and giving them the confidence to succeed.

The masterclass highlighted the persistent gender disparities in real estate leadership and the critical need for more inclusive practices. The insights shared by industry leaders like Celeste Starchild, Jessica Edgerton, Marty Reed, and Kathleen Wayson underscore the challenges women face and the significant strides they have made. By examining the historical context, statistical disparities, income inequality, and barriers to leadership, the discussion provided a comprehensive understanding of the issues at hand.

Beyond understanding these issues, the masterclass emphasized actionable strategies to foster change. From mentorship programs and leadership training to advocating for organizational and cultural shifts, the steps outlined are crucial for supporting and encouraging more women to step into leadership roles. As we strive for a more equitable real estate industry, it’s essential to continue these conversations, support initiatives that promote gender equality, and recognize the contributions and potential of women leaders. By doing so, we can pave the way for a more diverse and inclusive future in real estate.