‘More Than Ever, An Opportunity For A Woman’s Voice At The Table’: The Crisis Offered A Unique Opportunity To Level Up

This piece is part of a package of articles examining the impact the pandemic had on women in commercial real estate. To see the rest of the package, click here.

Bre Brown dreamed for years of starting her own business, but as a successful real estate broker with JLL Austin, she never had the time. Then, a global pandemic hit and put the majority of Brown’s business on hold. It was then she decided she no longer had an excuse not to pursue her passions.

“I’ve always been very entrepreneurial,” she said. “The amount of time that was freed up, I was able to think about things from a more optimistic perspective of, ‘Well, I can’t say I don’t have time because I have all the time in the world now.’”

Brown turned much of her focus to Modern Manifestation, a female empowerment coaching business and podcast she launched in September 2019. It was an immediate success, so much so that she stopped taking new clients once business picked back up at JLL.

“It’s a creative outlet for me and something that fills my fulfillment cup, which is something that I’m trying to be more mindful of as I go through life,” Brown said. “I’m here to work to live, not live to work.”

Brown’s story is not uncommon. According to an analysis by LinkedIn, the number of businesses owned by women grew 27% during the pandemic compared to 17% for men and 17% for nonbinary people. Close to 75% of women in CRE who responded to a July survey conducted by the Commercial Real Estate Women Network said their personal priorities changed as a result of the pandemic.

The pandemic may have been beneficial for some, but data shows it posed a major setback for women in the industry as a whole. Close to 40% of respondents to the CREW Network survey said the pandemic stalled progress for women, while a little more than 30% said it derailed progress altogether.

For a significant percentage, though, dire initial dips led to trampoline-like bounce backs later.

"2020 was obviously hard for almost everyone,” said Caroline Leary, an agency leasing associate with JLL Dallas. “Everyone in my office was hit financially in 2020. But, candidly, 2021 was the best year I've had, and it was for everyone on my team." 

Leary is among several women Bisnow interviewed for this project who said Covid-19 had the unintended effect of leveling the playing field for women. Close to 40% of respondents to the CREW Network survey said their compensation increased during the pandemic. In terms of wages, women in commercial real estate performed better than women overall, according to the network.

Carrie Thomas, marketing manager for Weitzman in Dallas, said the pandemic positively impacted her career because it made her job more relevant. For years, Thomas’ team had been trying to convince their retail clients to establish a digital presence, but it wasn’t until their storefronts closed that they fully embraced the value of moving online.

“[The pandemic] pretty much validated everything that we were trying to do,” she said.

Noreen Mehdi Weathers, an occupier adviser with CBRE in Dallas who works primarily with office clients, said she spent the early part of the pandemic focusing on business development rather than transactions. But as office activity picked up in Dallas, Weathers saw her bottom line bounce back in a major way. 

It wasn’t just paychecks that improved — for some, the pandemic had an intangible benefit as well. The nationwide reckoning around social justice accelerated DEI efforts, thereby bolstering the careers of some women in a predominantly male industry.

“The pandemic was a correction in how we work together,” Weathers said. “A lot of the stodgy, 1950s Mad Men stuff is kind of laughable now.”

When asked about their company’s gender equity and DEI efforts, 36% of respondents to the CREW Network survey said their company increased its focus, while 37% said nothing had changed. Leary said that in her experience, the emphasis on DEI created more opportunities for women like herself to be included on leasing teams. Building owners still ultimately make decisions based on who is best for the job, but Leary said greater value is now placed on the female perspective.

“I think there is certainly now, more than ever, an opportunity for a woman's voice at the table, and for that woman's voice to be heard and respected,” she said. 

As a Black woman in the industry, Shicara Hollie Muhammad said her experience as a double minority has not always been easy. When she took her first CRE job in 2013, Muhammad said she was often passed over for promotions and leadership roles in favor of her White, male colleagues.

“Being a woman in this industry, or a person of color, you definitely have to work a little harder,” she said. “You can still accomplish the goals that you have, but you have to really work hard.”

After the murder of George Floyd in May 2020, Muhammad noticed a shift. She left her job at Ernst & Young in October 2020 after being offered a senior transaction manager role with CBRE. 

“Because of what was going on with social injustice, a lot of companies made a vow to really invest in their communities and build their diverse talent,” she said, noting she is part of a program at CBRE that arms diverse employees with the resources needed to one day become a vice chairman. “I had several mentors at CBRE that really believed in the cause.”

Whether the acceleration of DEI initiatives during the pandemic translates to better rates of success for women of diverse backgrounds remains to be seen. In November 2020, Bisnow found that at 67 of the largest commercial real estate firms, there were 93 people of color working in the C-suite or highest echelon of management. A year later, that number has grown to 104, or 12.9% of all C-suite roles held. According to the CREW Network’s survey, on average, Black and Latina CRE professionals were less likely than other ethnicities and origins to receive compensation increases in 2020.

Despite the challenges women face in their careers, many female CRE employees say they’ve worked too hard to get where they are to give up now. Brown currently has no plans to leave commercial real estate behind, but the pandemic showed her that life is too short to not feel fulfilled, and that realization could lead her to choose a different path in the future.

 “If 20 years from now all I’ve done is real estate — it’s not curing cancer — that might be a little disappointing for me,” she said. “I can see this becoming something at some point, and I’m grateful that I have the ability to sort of change around my schedule to allow more space if I need to.”