Vivienne King, chair of Revo and founder of Impactful Places, says the industry is still in the early stages of making significant change to support female talent.
Vivienne King
Make no mistake, the gender make-up around the decision-making table isn’t just window dressing.
McKinsey has long said it influences the culture in the room, commercial creativity and innovation, organisational health and, ultimately, superior business performance. In an industry that directly serves people, real estate should be ‘all in’ on top-to-bottom gender balance. Although there is senior commitment from leaders across our industry, and women are increasingly taking up senior roles, we are still in the foothills of significant change.
Real estate acts as a nexus between placemaking, the economy, finance, law and community, since it is both commercial and impacts people. It is an exciting, welcoming industry to work in, offering a wealth of career paths. Yet, despite the best endeavours of many, it still labours under the yoke of a white, male, middle-class reputation, with its own quirky language and hierarchy. As a result, it can seem impenetrable to those outside it, particularly women and other under-represented groups who look on at it as “an industry not open to me”. This then limits the pool of talent we could be incentivising to join, to ensure our long-term resilience.
This means that actively engaging in a programme of supporting female talent into senior roles is not only vital but will inevitably be one of the tactics to speed up culture change, shifting the optics of what it means to be dedicated to a career in real estate.
It is for all real estate organisations to take up the challenge, to bring about the change our industry needs. Among those clearly committed to progress, Revo is one such example. With a 50:50 gender split at its executive board level, across generations (and with me as its female chair), Revo is demonstrating that a better-balanced leadership is achievable and effective. With this structure, we are strengthening our offer, diversifying our thinking, deepening our relevance to more people and pivoting our culture. If the next generation of professionals can look at our board and see themselves there, we start to shift the psychology to “an industry available to me”.
Collective progress
Women as individuals must also lean in to the challenge. At every level, we have a collective responsibility to support each other. In the immortal words of former US secretary of state Madeleine Albright: “There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help each other.” At a senior level, we should be reaching out to elevate female talent coming through the pipeline. I have seen first-hand how sponsorship and mentoring empower young professionals; but, equally, through mentoring I have been inspired by the next generation’s energy, social awareness and willingness to challenge legacy thinking.
This belief in collective progress led me to co-found Real Estate Balance in 2015 alongside six other extraordinary women. What began as a shared frustration with the tiny number of women in senior industry roles has evolved into a movement – one that now stands as the authoritative voice for equity, diversity and inclusion in real estate.
If we continue to intentionally elevate female talent, challenge legacy thinking and build accountability among the leadership, real estate’s C-suite of the future will be more representative, more resilient, more credible and, ultimately, more successful. When women sit at the decision-making table, the shift can be tangible. I was told I changed the tempo when I joined The Crown Estate’s management board in 2007. Without softening the decision-making, I adopted a different approach, asking different questions based on my different experience, which deepened our commercial rigour.
Revo champions the collective excellence and influence of its membership, many of whom are intentionally supporting the growth of women through their careers. In alignment with its members, Revo continues to establish itself as a representative voice for the full spectrum of industry talent with a powerful message for International Women’s Day: leadership is strongest when it is inclusive.
Real estate needs to be defined as a balanced industry, leading to better business and stronger culture and, ultimately, a more resilient, representative industry for the future.
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