There are plenty of industries that continue to marginalize women, but real estate isn’t one of them.

 

Or is it?

 

According to a nation-wide Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) survey done last year, there are still more men than women in the business by a 10 per cent margin (about 55/45 per cent men to women respectively, with 0.2 per cent identifying as non-binary).

 

You may have heard differently. It varies from place to place, and it’s widely rumoured that there are significantly more women than men realtors in large centres like, say, Toronto. The reality, though, is that up-to-the-minute stats from the Toronto board don’t back this up, showing the percentage of women in the business there to be only 39 per cent.

 

On the upside, wage gap issues don’t tend to crop up between male and female realtors, thanks to payment being via commission. So okay, let’s be generous and say that as far as sales reps go, the industry gets a passing grade for gender equality.

 

 

But what does that look like in the higher tiers — the broker/owners, managing brokers, and other industry leaders? Not so good, it turns out. Women in real estate are still under-represented in senior positions.

 

For instance, according to a 2022 statistic from Re/Max Canada, only 33 per cent of the Re/Max membership’s broker/owners are female.

 

Broader stats from relevant industry and government agencies are hard to find. “That’s another challenge,” says the Ontario Real Estate Association’s (OREA) Tania Artenosi. “We don’t keep track of women’s success in this industry.”

 

Along with being the current OREA president, Artenosi is co-owner/broker of record with a Coldwell Banker office in the Greater Toronto Area. She reports that thanks partly to improved training, technology, and accessibility to information, “to be a female broker/owner today looks and feels a lot better” than it did a decade ago.

 

 

 

The past five years, in particular, have been game-changing for women, Artenosi observes.

 

“In Ontario, 15 of the 34 real estate boards have female presidents, which is amazing.”

 

 It’s a sign that women are increasingly “getting involved in committees and community events, getting themselves known, volunteering their time, and going up the rankings,” she states.

 

“That’s the start. It’s the same path for everybody…You really have to look at your time and what you can offer in terms of your availability. Be honest.”

 

Artenosi has had to leap over her share of hurdles. “I had to prove myself…to be accepted as a broker of record and not just a mom in her child-bearing years. I’d learned the industry inside out, but people still put me in that box.”

 

 The discrimination around maternity is not as vocalized as it once was, she says. “But people still think it.”

 

 

 

 

Vancouver-based Bel-Air Realty co-owner Toni Sing points out that there still aren’t many female leaders in real estate to look to as role models for professional development and life planning. Without that type of influence, Sing, back when she was pregnant, was “waddling around” door-knocking and making appointments right up until going into labour. What’s more, she had unrealistic expectations that she’d be back on the job the next week, baby in tow.

 

“It didn’t go that way. It was a struggle,” she says. “You have to prioritize differently as a woman.”

 

Find a way to manage the “mom guilt,” she advises. Be proactive in juggling family and career and set a plan in place. (Sing recalls asking her male colleagues how they do it. Their unenlightened response was, “We give the kids to our wives.”)

 

She and Oakwyn Realty Northwest broker/owner Jenny Wun host a podcast together called In the House. Recently the podcast featured a panel of Vancouver-based women broker/owners, including Arlene Chiang (Oakwyn Realty), Morgan Browne (Oakwyn Realty), and Connie Buna (Keller Williams). Among their insights are that education, mentoring and fostering regular get-togethers with like-minded people are ways that the real estate community can help launch more women into leadership roles.

 

 Although neither safety when dealing with the occasional predatory male client nor persisting sexism in the industry were a major focus of the panel, these concerns continue to plague women in real estate, despite being less tolerated than previously. One of the panellists recalls being informed that after she had a baby, she’d probably “peter out” in the business. Another once witnessed a female broker being asked during a meeting to fetch a glass of water for a man attending.

 

 

 

 

Erica Smith, co-owner of the all-female (well almost — there’s one man) Toronto brokerages Stomp Realty and Condo Chicks, recalls a time when she and her business partner were among the city’s first female teams. They chose that route largely because of the discrimination they were facing on a regular basis.

 

Smith points out that women tend to be better at relationship building, which is a big plus in real estate. “Men are more focused on the numbers” and are wired to be more competitive with each other,” in her opinion.

 

 Many men now tell her that they prefer working with women. But “it can be harder for some men to take advice from a female leader,” Smith has found.” You have to fight a little harder to have those leadership roles while maintaining femininity” and professionalism, she notes. “You may feel always under a microscope.”

 

 

She continues: “Sometimes women leaders are deemed pushy and aggressive. But we’re doing exactly what a man does. You’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t. You have to be able to assert yourself and put yourself out there.”