Finding the balanced approach

Late last week I wrote a purposely provocative open letter to the women of the built environment. I was prompted to do it after the umpteenth Tweet claiming outrage at an all male panel at our events. Anyone who had attended the whole event would have seen that the majority of the panels were mixed and that some were even all female. Anyone who has spent any time with the wonderful team here at EG would see the effort that goes into curating events, and how much time and effort they spend trying to get balanced panels. They invite scores of women and sadly the conversion rate is not superb. It’s okay, but not superb. Not enough to always deliver 100% of our panels being mixed. Rising to the challenge So, I wrote an open letter outlining this and laying down the challenge to the women on the built environment to be the solution to this problem. To say “yes” more. I knew it was a letter that might not go down well. I used language purposely to stir up emotions. But I also used, what I hoped, was language to inspire. You can read the letter in full, or a shorter, edited version in the box below. The response was overwhelming. My inbox started to fill with women rising to the challenge. Women from every corner of the real estate industry, from every level. Women with amazing stories to tell, with new angles on the time-old tales we tell through real estate. It was amazing, Twitter and LinkedIn blew up. It was exhausting, but enlightening. This purposely provocative letter also raised a lot of questions. “What was the proportion of men we asked?” was a common question. The answer is tough and a little bit sad. Men get put forward by PRs and partners (we push back, and will do so even more now), or they come forward themselves. As much as I have asked the women of the industry to say yes more, we here at EG must commit to saying no more if we are just delivered up men. Asking why By far the best question asked, however, was have you asked the women why they say no? A simple question but one that could yield the solution. So, in response to that, we have created a survey to send to everyone who emailed, shared on Twitter and LinkedIn, and available here to find out why. Please, fill in the survey here. Once we find the answers, EG will commit to helping find the solution. Should we have childcare facilities, do we need to offer training to our panellists (several helpful souls in this industry offered up their services – see responses box), do we need to make events more interesting, hold them at different times of the day? Solving the problem While I may have laid the “blame” at women’s feet in my open letter, this is of course a shared problem and something that is only solvable together. The conversation has most definitely been started. Openly and honestly. And I for one have to say a big thank you to everyone who has got involved with it – whether you challenged me or not. As a result of this conversation, close to 100 women have so far contacted me putting their hand up and saying I’ll help you out, I’ll be on a panel. I’ll help make this change. Let’s keep the conversation going. Let’s be the change. An open letter Dear women of the built environment, This is an open letter from me to all of you. It is a letter that might not make me many friends but it is a letter that needs to be written. I am getting increasingly annoyed, upset and tired of the constant call out of all-male panels. None of us who put together these panels are blind, we can see that they are all male and, although it may come as some surprise to you, it upsets us too. We use the wonderful Women Talk Real Estate database, our even more wonderful team of male and female journalists (and our two female conference producers) offer up their contacts, we use the socials to call out for women, we use our own list of hundreds of amazing women that make up the REWIRE tribe. We go all out. For the past eight events we have produced we have invited 48 women to take part. Want to take a guess at how many women said yes and actually turned up to be on those panels? 18. Yep, just 18. That’s 37.5% of the women we asked saying yes. This is not good enough. And that, I’m afraid to say, is not our fault. That’s your fault. Only you have the power to say yes. “I think you would all kill it up on stage talking about your individual areas of expertise but for some reason I see so few of you doing it. Why?” I have met many women who work in the built environment and the vast majority of them are phenomenal human beings who are smart, hard-working and pretty damn amazing. They have attended our REWIRE sessions, I’ve cycled with them, I’ve made lasting friendships outside of work with a number of them. There are so many of you out there. And I, hand on heart, think you would all kill it up on stage talking about your individual areas of expertise but for some reason I see so few of you doing it. Why? I get up on stage and talk and I am neither an extrovert nor that smart! If I can do it, why can’t you? So, why aren’t enough women in the industry seizing these opportunities? Why aren’t they making more noise? Why aren’t more of you saying: “Sod it, I’ll say yes to that”? It is you, not us that changes this industry. We here at EG will continue to ask you. We’ll even ask you 100 times if you keep saying no. We won’t stop. And if you see barriers to saying yes, flash this letter in front of that person creating the barrier and tear it down. EG will have your back. EG wants you to be part of the wonderful things we want to do. All you have to do is put your hand up, say yes and be part of it. Join the panel. Join the debate. Join this industry. Read the full letter here. The responses Liz Peace‏ @lizpeaceCBE When I was a full time working mum I had to use my working hours very effectively – perhaps some of the women asked simply did not feel 2-3 hours at a conference was a good use of their day! Perhaps we have too many conferences and seminars! Property Miguel‏ @Property_Funder We ended up with an all male panel for our event yesterday because we a) couldn’t find a sufficiently qualified lady that wanted to participate and b) the one who wanted to participate was ill and had to be replaced with a male colleague #justsaying Alexandra Notay‏ @aknotay I think equal parental rights are as fundamental key to unlocking some of these issues. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that of the U.K. women I’ve interviewed for my #oxdsi so far who’ve maintained longterm #realestate careers at senior levels, many have stay-at-home husbands. Jeff Sample‏ @IronmanOfIT You & the respondent raise some great questions. I wonder if having some male panelists advocate a female they know could really do it would help. Lots of data on the #transformation happening through #Advocacy not just #Mentorship Great article Anastasija Clayton‏ @HomesAClayton I am inspired by strong women @HomesEngland and in the development and engineering industry every day. Many of them juggle responsibilities of work, home and family daily and show true leadership in everything they do. It is brilliant place to be! Rian Strauss‏ @TheRianStrauss I learned early on that I have to jump at all the good opportunities that come my way and make the most of them. It’s the only way you move on up (no matter your chromosomes) Molly Brady‏ @Molly_WiFO Interested in what reasons are given as to why these women don’t want to attend? Time constraints, family commitments, or public speaking jitters, perhaps delving deeper into why these women turn down the opportunity would help us to get to the route of the underrepresentation. James Pellatt‏ @Jamespellatt A heartfelt post, well said. If any prospective women speakers would like someone to practice and rehearse a talk or inclusion on a panel I’m happy to sit listen and provide constructive advice. Practice makes perfect and makes any event seem less daunting. Good luck Sam. Follow the debate on Twitter at @samanthamcclary