During last week’s International Women’s Day, a panel of property leaders encouraged the industry to start engaging with girls from an early age to dispel myths around what roles in the industry they can peruse.
Property has traditionally been a male-dominated space, but many in the industry are trying to change this.
The Champions of Change Property Group, comprising 23 leaders in the property sector, recently released the results of its 2023 Impact Report, which measures how their organisations are progressing in advancing gender equality and combating sexual and domestic violence.
According to the report women make up 48.5 per cent of employees of the member companies that make up the Champions of Change Property, representing gender equality.
However, there is still more that can be done in progressing gender equality across the industry, and for many it is about educating young girls about the opportunities available to them.
For Melanie Kurzydlo, Chief Executive, Property and Social Infrastructure at The APP Group, she remembers a time she went to a careers night at a girls school in Sydney, and the only section she could sit in to represent her role was residential real estate.
“From that moment on, I made a decision to make sure that I spoke to as many private school principals that I could, and to ensure that their career advisors were talking about the careers that women could have in property.”
Ms Kurzydlo said when it comes to engaging young girls, the earlier the better.
“I think primary school is where it all does start,” she told a Property Council WA event on International Women’s Day.
“The Property Council does a very good Girls in Property initiative in Sydney, and across all parts of the nation. The initiative is to go to public schools…and talk to them about the great careers they can have.
“They probably don’t know what you’re talking about. But they will remember that later on.”
The Property Council’s Girls in Property program raises awareness among high school students of the various career paths available across the property industry.
Following a successful pilot project in NSW in 2017, the Property Council rolled out the Girls in Property program nationally in 2018. Over 1,500 students have participated nationally in the program since its launch.
Adrian Pozzo, Chief Executive Officer, Cbus Property said the group does a ‘name the crane’ program with schools near its development sites.
“All the kids will come in and draw cranes and name the cranes and learn about the industry, it’s fantastic,” he said.
“People need to know what we do. It’s a great industry and for the young girls to understand that they could be on sites, they could be building these things.
“They can be a crane driver, they can be a project manager, development manager, you can do the design on big buildings, it’s just too good an opportunity to bypass.”
Ms Kurzydlo said the conversation needs to begin with parents, to let their kids know about the opportunities in the sector. Danya Mullins Associate Principal | Markets and Clients Leader at Arup agreed, noting that she wants to give her kids as many options for a potential future career as possible.
“As a parent you just want to give your children the options and not narrow it down for them,” she said.
Sharon Warburton, Wesfarmers non-executive director and Mirvac Funds Management independent director, agreed the conversation needs to start at home and in schools.
“We’re all doing it, but we are just not doing enough of it,” she said.