Pics taken at event

Experts urge government to support women in property



A panel of experts have urged the government to play a more active role in creating equal opportunities in the property industry.


At an event called ‘Women in Property: Breaking down barriers’, held by Close Brothers Property Finance at the lender’s Crown Place office in London, it was discussed how the industry could support more women working in the property sector at a decision-making level.

Covering topics from returning to work after maternity leave to the menopause, the panel agreed “cultural” change was needed, but that government support was also required. Daniel Joyce, deputy managing director at Close Brothers Property Finance, kicked off proceedings with statistics on the lack of female representation and equality in the workplace. For instance, only 21% of women return to work full-time after maternity leave (across all industry sectors).

When asked why other countries had better female representation in their property industries, panellist Edwin De Silva, business development director at STARK UK, highlighted the importance of policy influence.

“[This indicates] that there is a role the government plays,” explained Edwin. “There’s a cultural shift, but there’s also got to be a systemic shift in in the structure . . . [that] culture has to come from the government as well, by the incentives that drive businesses.”

With the panel and audience alike surprised that fewer than one-quarter of women return to work full-time after maternity leave, the role government support can play here was discussed.

Panellist Rosey Cassidy, director at Newman Rose Property Group, explained that costs surrounding this was difficult for small businesses like hers, and the government needed to help here with tax breaks.

“As a small business owner, it’s tough,” she said. “A lot of small businesses want to be as progressive as possible, they want to give as long a maternity leave as possible, and flexible working hours, but you’ve also got a business to run.”

She added: “There’s something that could be done on the bigger picture . . . what can the government do to support business owners to support women?”

Creating the right culture

During the event, the industry experts shared their experiences and reflections on how things had improved within property, but that more was still required. As part of this, it was discussed how many women perceive the property sector as male-dominated. To combat this, panellist Kim Opszala, managing director at Komo Properties, said women working in the industry needed greater visibility.

“We need to share what they're doing - a lot of women, maybe even in this room, are doing some amazing things,” said Kim, “and they don’t ever share it”. “I know of male developers who have put themselves forward for [media] articles, while females tend to do that less so.”

She suggested that media and public speaking training could help on this.

To combat this, Rosey said mindsets needed to change in order to improve the visibility of women working in property.

“It’s important to educate those at the decision-making level the value women bring to this industry . . . women bring a whole new skillset.” she stated.

“People don’t know all of the careers available in property and actually how far reaching this industry is,” she added, explaining that companies that broadcast women and the roles and work they do in property would attract more women into the sector.

“Women need to be confident . . . but companies need to want to portray women in the first place.”

Entrenched biases

Panellist Helen Moore, non-executive director at the Home Builders Federation, explained how women are still disadvantaged by biases. A culture has been created, she argued, where women are less confident to ask for raises than men and are more likely to suffer from imposter syndrome.

Reflecting on how hard it can be as a woman in property, Helen used the topic of menopause as an example of how entrenched the culture has become. This came to a head when she joined a “much more broad-minded” housing association after years private housebuilding.

“When I got there, they were all talking about menopause; I've spent all my career with people trying to tell me why, as a female, I'm not good enough at what I do,” she said. “Why give them an excuse to put another label on it?”

However, over the years, Helen revealed she has understood that you have to talk about this for people to ever understand what others are experiencing.

She explained that women in property who have fought so hard “against the odds” to get to senior positions in organisations could then contend with a “massive brain drain” and then decide to leave.

“It's a great shame because all that talent [is] being wasted,” she said, “they spent all those years building that expertise,” she added, explaining that to then lose this was a “great shame”.

When looking at the numbers of women on boards within property companies, Helen said we can’t “be happy when we get a woman on the board”.

“It's too easy to feel comfortable that we've made progress when we haven't really made progress until we get 50/50.

“It's about male allyship and understanding that our board will make more money or better decisions.”



Leave a comment