'Aspiration Gap' Persists As CRE Women Make Strides

Ayers: “CREW Network remains committed to supporting the industry as it makes this change.”

LAWRENCE, KS—The latest benchmark study from CREW Network shows that women in real estate occupy more senior-level roles and are more satisfied with their career success than ever. However, the report also cites an “aspiration gap” between women and men when it comes to the C-Suite. The  2015 Benchmark Study Report: Women in Commercial Real Estate finds that women now fill SVP, managing director and partner positions in greater numbers. And in one important metric, career satisfaction, women have now achieved parity with their male counterparts, as they have in terms of the percentage of women with direct reports. The study, which followed up on similar efforts in 2005 and 2010, drew on an unprecedented 10-year body of data, tracking and analyzing specialization, compensation and career achievement by gender. One area in which parity between genders still lags is income. The study shows that the median total annual compensation for ’15, including bonuses, compensation and profit sharing, was $150,000 for men and $115,000 for women in commercial real estate. “This income gap of 23.3% demonstrates that North America still has a long way to go to achieve gender wage parity,” according to the study. That income gap “widens with years of experience and position, with the difference most pronounced between women and men in the C-Suite and within the brokerage and development specializations.” The C-Suite itself represents another area where there continues to be room for improvement. As in the ’05 and ’10 studies, men continue to outnumber women in C-Suite positions, although the relative difference is shrinking. Due in part to “the persistent bias against female advancement” and in part to a lack of mentors and sponsors, fewer women aspire to C-Suite roles than do their male counterparts. When survey respondents were asked what position they aspired to at the peak of their career, the most common answer among women was SVP, while for men it was joining the ranks of C-level executives. “We are encouraged by the positive results of this research and the overall satisfaction of women in commercial real estate, but change is not coming fast enough,” says CREW Network CEO Gail Ayers . “We are looking to industry leaders to take action, and CREW Network remains committed to supporting the industry as it makes this change.” CREW Network enlisted the MIT Center for Real Estate as its independent research partner to survey, tabulate, analyze and produce the 2015 benchmark report. The survey was conducted among 2,182 industry professionals between March and October of last year.