Equal Pay for Women? Someday.
Do you doubt President Obama’s contention that women still haven’t achieved pay equity with their male counterparts? Here’s what some of the 360 accomplished commercial real estate women (and fabulous men) attending NEWiRE’s Annual Awards Gala last night have to say.
After two years of independent research and member surveys, CREW finds that female commercial real estate pros—regardless of their tenure in the biz—aren’t good at developing business or networking and shy away from taking the same risks as men, says Nitsch Engineering CEO and CREW prez Judy Nitsch. We have to change that, she says. Networking is critical to career advancement: People do business with those they know, trust, and meet at professional or social events. (We have a motto: You can't trust someone until you enjoy chili with them.) She sets standards at her firm asking project managers to attend at least one event a month, up to twice a week for a senior person. Don’t do it for the company. Do it for your own development.
JLL national director Sherie Heywood (with JLL market directorJim Tierney) oversees brokers around the world who rep a 15M SF corporate portfolio. Since ’98, she’s been a broker in California, Illinois, and Massachusetts; she’s a rare breed. Estimates are that only 10% of full-time Boston brokers are women. Networking is essential but also being smart, driven, sales-oriented, and able to put all of the connections together, Sherie says. She’s a member of the team that won the NEWiRE Networking Award for arranging Iron Mountain’s relo into 125k SF at One Federal Street in the Financial District. As the only JLL woman here at her high level, networking through a professional group helps her find support and referrals.
We snapped Asian Community Development Corp executive director Janelle Chan, among those developing the 363-unit One Greenway multifamily project in Chinatown where the $150M Phase 1 is under construction (she's with with real estate attorney Edwards Wildman’s Rebecca Lee). She says it’s a challenge when you walk into a meeting and no one in the room looks like you. (Though it might be equally unsettling to walk into a room where everyone looks like you.) The question women have to ask themselves: How do you pull a deal together when historically your gender hasn’t been at the table? The answer: Be assertive. Say to yourself, I’m at the helm. I’ll partner and negotiate but I’ll stand my ground and command respect.
Winner of the Suzanne King Public Service Award, Randi Lathrop (with husband Bob holding the package and friend Origen Ventures CEO Jim Robertson, who’s redeveloping LockOber’s) can walk around town and see neighborhoods she’s helped to refashion and revive as a BRA staffer and the city’s outgoing director of business development. She led the charge on the South End’s Washington Street and Albany Street districts; the Fenway, and Downtown Crossing. Women have advantages: They think outside the box and can mediate between stakeholders with differing agendas. The challenge is to win respect and get a seat at the table. She advises getting involved with the public, private, and professional groups that are changing the city.
