Tackling the challenge of implicit bias is integral to improving the diversity in the commercial real estate challenges. A recent panel at a CREW San Diego event discussed the issue of implicit bias in the workplace and ways to correct it.

Mary Blair-Loy, a professor of sociology and co-director for Center for Research on Gender in STEMM at University of California, San Diego, said that we are not always innocent in the way that we create categories around people. Even the terms "men" and "women" come with preconceptions. "Men," she says, denotes competence and assertiveness, while "women," on the other hand, come with ideas of passiveness and supportiveness. "They are gender glasses that we put on and color our assessments of colleagues," says Blair-Loy.

Discrepancies between the two genders regularly impact the workplace in terms of everything from reviewing resumes to work performance to the way that people are treated at industry events. Women often feel undervalued, and this can have a negative impact on employee retention. "Women and mothers are more likely to get tired of being treated poorly and leave, and firms lose valuable human capital," says Blair-Loy. In STEM jobs, almost half of women leave when they have their first child. Blair-Loy calls this a brain drain on our society.