Seattle Power Women!
Bisnow was thrilled to celebrate the top women in Seattle commercial real estate with friends, supporters and sponsors last week at the Westin Seattle.
Bisnow's Power Women are those who push boundaries and change the built environment and the commercial real estate industry. They're also leaders and role models who are inspiring and nurturing the next generation, many of whom joined us for great networking with the movers and shakers.
The event was the culmination of our four-part series of profiles, telling how these extraordinary women rose to their positions of influence. (Here's Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 and Part 5).
Honorees included Lacey Ahlf, Stacy Amrine, Scotta Ashcraft, Lydia Bennett, Ann Chamberlin, Lynda Collie, Tiffini Connell, Rachel Corp, Dayna Dealy, Liz Dunn, Mollie Fadule, Stephanie Fasano, Laura Ford, Shelley Gill, Ada Healey, Lori Hill, Pamela Hirsch, Theresa Howard, A-P Hurd, Patricia Loveall, Kelly Mann, Laura Miller, Wende Miller, Jen Reyes, Lisa Stewart, Monica Wallace and Wilma Warshak.
Hartman Simons & Wood partner Lori Kilberg, 2015 president of CREW Network, kicked off the event by addressing some of the obstacles still facing women executives. Some of the best women executives are sidelined at the height of their careers—women may rise to their first C-suite position, but it proves much harder for them to rise from there than their male counterparts. Women are gaining ground in the boardroom, however. Many are rising to power as committee chairs, especially the governance committees, but not compensation committees.
In 2015, according to CREW's latest study of women in CRE, more women were hired in the industry to fill SVP, managing director and partner positions than in 2010, Lori said. Women are more satisfied with their jobs. The income gap is shrinking at lower-level positions, but growing higher up in organizations.
Kris Beason, foundation chair of CREW Network, said in real estate, women are paid 70 cents for every dollar their male counterparts are paid in the same position. Locally, 58% of the workforce in Washington state are women, and they earn 76 cents on the dollar compared with their male counterparts. Women earn less at every educational level.
Income parity for women, besides being fair, would also be good for the local and national economy, since it would drive more household spending, Kris said. Key actions for employers would be to review pay and promotion patterns to uncover gender disparities, and increase wage transparency.
Here are Kris, Jen Reyes, Mollie Fadule, Lacey Ahlf and Lori.
Kris and Lori gave out the awards to our honorees. Here they are with A-P Hurd.
