January 24, 2018 | less than a minute read

The Changing Role of Women in Commercial Real Estate

Brownlee Law

This month's Building Magazine issue features an interesting article about gender equality and parity in the Canadian Commercial Real Estate industry. While there has been improvement, and reasons to be optimistic, there is still work to be done to combat unconscious bias and subtle discrimination such as exclusion from projects/events and micro-aggression. Research has shown that diversity has a positive impact on bottom lines, efficiency and creativity, and that should held to assist in the drive for gender equality.

While recent headlines have been dominated by stories of longstanding predatory behaviour against women within entertainment industries, equally disturbing has been the many news stories exposing deeply embedded misogyny within the tech sector. What is unsettling about this latter industry is both its increasing economic importance and the fact it is controlled largely by men who came of age in the supposed age of gender equality. So what about Commercial Real Estate in Canada, a well-established if increasingly complex legacy sector that has long had a reputation as a man’s world of golf link deals and Cuban cigars?