Women in Real Estate (CREW)
By: J. David Chapman/August 25, 2022
I had the opportunity to speak to the Commercial Real Estate Women Oklahoma City Chapter last week. Founded in June of 2016, CREW-OKC’s membership welcomes women in all facets of commercial real estate including brokers, property managers, appraisers, attorneys, architects, lenders, engineers, developers, escrow officers and more. CREW-OKC is an affiliate organization of CREW Network. Therefore, a member of CREW-OKC is also a member of CREW Network. This global network comprises 75-plus affiliate organizations, with a total membership of more than 12,000 CRE professionals.
The University of Central Oklahoma Real Estate Program has made it a focus in recent years to grow opportunities in real estate for women by fostering a welcoming environment with club leadership, program scholarships, and industry internship opportunities. CREW mirrors this mission and commitment and is focused on influencing the commercial real estate industry by advancing the achievements of women.
According to data gathered in 2020 by the CREW Network and the MIT Center for Real Estate, women made up 36.7% of all professionals in commercial real estate. The average fixed-base salary in commercial real estate in 2020 is $112,290 (USD) for men and $100,802 for women. The 10.2% salary gap means that, on average, women make 90 cents for every dollar that men earn in fixed salaries. We can do better.
In a presentation called “Powering up the Potential,” we discussed how leaders can take an active role in diversifying the workforce and elevating young women in commercial real estate. This is a timely reminder for those of us in higher education, as we welcome thousands of young people back to campus for another year, that it is our obligation to foster an inclusive environment attractive to a diverse group of students.
There are groups, such as CREW, that are ready and willing to partner with us to mentor young women, speak to real estate clubs, guest lecture in class, hire interns, provide scholarships, and ultimately provide career opportunities for these aspiring young women with the passion for commercial real estate.
If you have a passion to help build a strong, ethical, competent, diverse, commercial real estate workforce, I’d encourage you to get involved in the local CREW chapter and reach out to your closest university with a real estate program. I promise they will appreciate your interest, passion and help!
J. David Chapman is a professor of finance and real estate at the University of Central Oklahoma (jchapman7@uco.edu).