
What is the cost of gender imbalance in the workplace? Image: itupictures http://www.flickr.com/photos/itupictures/
I’m researching a blog post that’s sparked by a conversation I had on Facebook yesterday.
The conversation went like this.
Me: “What’s your take on the way our industry (real estate) treats women?”
Friend: “Just looking at it from [my company’s point of view], all the people in our top ten are all men and it always makes me wonder why. Adding to that the only women doing well are the ones with older kids or no kids.
There’s absolutely no support [for women] like me that have [young] kids… To make it I need to help to be able to go to…[appointments] where as if I was a man, I would simply leave my wife at home which is considered normal.”
That got me thinking so I phoned another friend, this time a mum with 2 boys and a supportive husband. The story was the same. In this case I could hear the frayed nerves as she told me about juggling a high performance career and running a household of four.
It struck me that something was about to break.
Yet despite the extra obstacles these women face – and overcome – they’re largely unheralded in the real estate industry (and I’d venture to say many others, too).
I suspect that industry conveniently turns a blind eye, or worse still addresses the issue with something bordering on passive aggression.
So I’m on a mission to find out what’s going on here. What are the facts? What’s at stake. I want to know the cost of idolising high monetary performers and overlooking the contribution made by those who choose to make raising a family their priority.
How you can help.
I’m looking for any thought provoking articles or research (such as this) that could help illuminate this issue. If you know of any, please leave a link in the comments below.
Real Estate is one of the careers and industries that no matter whether you are male or female you can succeed. There are many successful women in real estate and not just older women with older kids. During my career I have given birth and raised two children and know many other successful women in real estate that have done the same. If you use being a women as an excuse for not succeeding it is your mind set you need to change not your gender.
Hi Peter. I think I’ve posted a link to this article to you before but it was a while back so not sure if you’ve already consulted it – it’s a beauty and caused a lot of discussion across the globe when it was first published. http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/07/why-women-still-cant-have-it-all/309020/
Thanks Nat. The quest to find answers has begun.
Hi Paula, there’s no doubt that there are many successful women in real estate. My question is why there’s such an imbalance in the numbers. And if that’s the case, what are the costs of this imbalance?