Marie Hunt, the Head of Research at the Irish property investment firm Iput, mentions that typically, women in the sector have to put in additional efforts to achieve similar outcomes as their male counterparts. She suggests either to rail against this reality or to acknowledge it, the latter being her chosen course of action.
She shares her perspective on the commercial real estate sector, noting it has traditionally been male-dominant and that the ascendance of women within its ranks has only become evident over the past few decades. Hunt also acknowledges that female colleagues she’s known often took more time to attain senior roles. This could be due to family commitments, like childcare, which may complicate their career progression.
Prior to university, Hunt had planned to study communications in Dublin but shifted to property valuations in Galway, close to home, due to her mother’s illness. This change led her to attain a surveying degree in Edinburgh. She entered the workforce with the valuations team at Gunne, which eventually rebranded as CBRE. There, Hunt founded the research department and headed it for 27 years before moving to Iput in 2022.
Reflecting on the current situation of gender balance in property courses, Hunt notes that both men and women appear to be equally represented. Nevertheless, as people ascend through the ranks, women seem to fall off, particularly at the senior position level. This trend may be due to childcare responsibilities and the industry’s traditional structure, which often involves networking outside regular office hours, on-site work and limited opportunities for remote work.
Hunt suggests that advancements in the sector nowadays might be making it more feasible for women to maintain their progression, compared to the past when childcare commitments and other factors might have forced a career break.
A 2019 analysis exploring unpaid labour and caregiving in Ireland was conducted by the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC) and the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI). The findings indicated that women, on average, dedicate twice the amount of time to caregiving and more than double the time to domestic chores compared to men.
The analysis scrutinised a decade’s worth of data to look into levels of unpaid work including child care, domestic duties, and care for the elderly or disabled. A point to note was the increased flexibility observed since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. It seemed to ease the path for women to ascend higher positions in the workforce and maintain their career, which was harder before due to childcare and other responsibilities.
Sharing her experiences in real estate, Claire Solon, the managing director at Greystar Ireland, notes some initial occurrences where her insights were overlooked or downplayed against a male colleague in the early days of her career. Despite facing presumptions in meetings that her male colleagues were her superiors, Solon has learnt to control her reactions against such conscious or unconscious biases. She gained entry into the industry by earning a degree in property economics from TU Dublin, and she notices a significant change. She observes a considerable rise of women in authoritative decision-making roles compared to when she started.
Marian Finnegan’s love for economics led her into real estate. Finnegan serves as the managing director of Sherry FitzGerald’s residential and advisory branch. She concentrated on urban economics academically before joining Sherry FitzGerald. Finnegan established the company’s research department and advanced to the role of group chief economist before getting appointed as the managing director in 2019.
Finnegan highlighted that despite the property sector’s male dominancy, predominantly in commercial properties during the 1990s, she was fortunate to work for a strategic firm under Mark FitzGerald’s far-sighted leadership. FitzGerald, she praised, was a true pioneer when it came to promoting gender balance within the workforce even before it became a predominant dialogue.
Finnegan further acknowledged the transformation the property industry and the economics realm have undergone in the last quarter-century, particularly the emergence of gender equality. “It is gratifying to witness a considerable increase in the level of gender parity among the latest recruits that come on board every year,” declared Finnegan.
Orla McMorrow, who holds the post of the DNG Group’s deputy chief executive, expressed that her gender never thwarted her progression. According to McMorrow, women bring a plethora of benefits to the table in property selling. They possess an innate capability to perform multiple tasks simultaneously, an acute understanding of client requirements, high-level communication skills and the ability to listen actively and show innate empathy and comprehension of potential customer stress during the process.
As her son explores his CAO possibilities, McMorrow recalls encountering the real estate and valuation programme on Bolton Street (formerly DIT, now TUD) and was instantly drawn to it. Today, she has climbed the hierarchical ladder to become DNG’s deputy chief executive in 2021, starting from the level of a junior negotiator.
Michele Jackson, TWM’s Commercial Property Advisor Director, was encouraged to base her career choice on the newspaper section that piqued her interest the most. This led her to study property economics and subsequently join a graduate programme at London’s Knight Frank. After working for top-tier commercial property corporations for two decades, she co-founded TWM in 2014, where she also serves as a co-owner.
Jackson fondly remembers her experiences of training and qualifying as a chartered surveyor in London’s commercial real estate sector. She states that there was an abundance of opportunity for responsibility and exposure to different sectors and clients depending on individual appetite.
Emma Maye, the CEO of renowned house construction firms Ardale and Core, asserts that her unique character traits, including being a female leader in the industry and dyslexic, paired with her diverse leadership experience have granted her a distinctive perspective in her field. She emphasises her pride in her differences and does not consider her being female a hinderance. Maye believes that her fresh angles on traditional frameworks could potentially reveal better alternatives.
She fondly recalls frequenting greenfield sites as a young girl with her late father, property developer Liam Maye. This practice has persisted as she often brings her children to these sites, albeit with measured moderation. Transitioning into the property realm following her father’s unexpected demise in 2008 was an instinctive move for Maye, fuelled by her zeal to continue his legacy. Having dedicated nearly 15 years of her life to the sector, she finds it challenging to envision a different professional path.
On another note, Jackson, another female professional, echoes that being a woman did not hamper her career. Instead, she concentrated on managing her factors of control and fostering valuable business relationships. Yet, she recognises that investment agencies are largely male inclined, and she attributes this to certain organisational cultures and the scarcity of females in higher positions.
Meanwhile, Shirley Coulter, the CEO of Ireland’s Society of Chartered Surveyors, opines that well-meaning measures for women, like part-time work or exclusion from after-hours meetings, unintentionally impede their career advancement.
Shirley Coulter, CEO of the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland (SCSI), has recounted her journey into the property and construction industry, which followed her 18-year experience across multiple professional fields. She pointed out how, despite incremental enhancement in female involvement across these sectors, there is still a scarcity of women holding senior positions.
Coulter also expressed that she mostly evaded gender-based discrimination during her professional journey but pointed out that certain provisions introduced to accommodate women can inadvertently hamper their career advancement. She noted that well-meaning efforts such as offering part-time work or excusing women from late-night activities end up limiting female career growth.
Addressing networking events that traditionally favoured males with sports-based activities, Hunt acknowledged the slowly emerging shift towards inclusivity. Increasingly, corporations are hosting events which cater to both genders, shifting away from the sports-centric model to involve other cultural activities, she explained.
McMorrow highlighted the changes seen within the property sector, with an increase in the number of women across all levels, including top management roles. Within their Dublin network, women account for 51% of DNG staff. She welcomed this positive trend, crediting advances made to enhance work-life balance, resolve gender pay disparity across industries, including property, and offering equal support to both genders in balancing familial commitments with career progression.
Meanwhile, Michele Jackson, TWM Property’s director, stressed that the focus should be on an organisation’s constant behaviour rather than temporary gestures on specific days like International Women’s Day.
In the realm of real estate appraisal, Coulter points out an increment in the female membership in SCSI from 17 per cent in 2018 to a little more than 20 per cent. In the trainee members undergoing the process to achieve chartered status, the proportion is nearly at 24 per cent.
“Certain progress has been made in striving towards a balanced distribution of gender in employment but evidently, more effort is required, notably in senior leadership roles,” says Finnegan. He further emphasises that it is “of utmost importance” to “guarantee equal potential for women to climb the executive ladder, have their input highlighted, and value in decision-making instances”.
Jackson puts forth her support to welcome more females into the commercial property industry, viewing it as a diversified, satisfying career full of splendid prospects and wonderful individuals. She adds, “Proper leadership ensuring a balanced work environment is crucial and will aid in attracting and keeping more women in this line of work. For me, it is the consistent behaviour of an organisation rather than the showy International Women’s Day gestures that matter.”
Coulter believes, “The conventional perspective of success should not confine women. We ought to establish our own aspirations, be it commanding a large property business or part-time work that offers a harmonious work-life equilibrium.” She continues, “It is erroneous to suppose that everyone’s success revolves around securing ‘high’ positions. Women should receive support to fulfil their ambitions, irrespective of the level”.
Solon, the managing director of property management firm Greystar Ireland, warns about lack of female representation in leadership roles: “Be wary if a company’s board or senior leadership lacks female representation.”
Solon believes women can make significant contributions to the property sector, expressing surprise at the idea of gender-unbalanced teams designing places like shopping centres and offices.
Coulter credits her success to the empowering women leaders she has worked with and endeavours to pass on this support. She refers to her role in creating the SCSI’s Elevate mentorship programme, launched in 2021, which has seen participation from 176 mentors and mentees to date.
“The difference in how the [development] sector is represented now compared to ten years ago is significantly vast,” remarks Maye.
We must continue to propagate this positive trajectory and one principle way of doing so is observing the well-known saying, ‘Seeing is believing.’ We must put a spotlight on women throughout the sector and narrate their experiences about the beneficial professions accessible, whilst illuminating the routes into the sector.”
“Moreover,” Maye notes, “those amongst us who have attained accomplishment must ensure we leave open opportunities for upcoming women in the field by providing them guidance and mentorship. This way, they can build upon the foundation we have set.”