2 days Ago By Jemimah Clegg
This week, the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) released its Employer Gender Pay Gaps Report, which found women earned, on average, 78 cents for every $1 men earned in the 2023-2024 financial year.That’s a difference of more than $28,000 a year. Of the 19 industries surveyed, the real estate industry had the third largest gender pay gap, behind the construction and financial services industries.
Property news editor Jemimah Clegg speaking on a panel for the REIV’s IWD Lunch. Picture: Benn DorringtonIt’s one of the reasons why, in my opinion, it is still important for us to mark International Women’s Day – yes to celebrate how far we’ve come in the pursuit of gender equality – but also to acknowledge how far we have to go.I was honoured to be asked to speak on a panel for the Real Estate Institute of Victoria’s IWD Lunch yesterday, and I was able to talk about how the childcare and household-task load is shared in my family.
My husband does the majority of kinder and school drop-offs and pick-ups, along with bed-time and the morning routine. He also earns more money than me – just.But, he works exclusively from home.
Yes, I’m only in the office twice a week, but it’s enough to make the routine work this way for us – for now.Our property journalist Benn Dorrington wrote this piece about another series of events marking IWD, called Leading Ladies of Real Estate. The events bring women together to empower more of them to step into leadership roles in the industry.
Leading Ladies Events host women in real estate leadership roles so they can share their stories and insights. Picture: SuppliedThis week’s episode of the real Talk podcast was also on the theme of women in property – but more about how women are increasingly taking the lead when it came to buying a home.I know that was the case when my husband and I bought our place.
Though it was ultimately a joint decision, I was the one attending most of the inspections, negotiating with the agent and making the deal.Gender equality isn’t a perfect science. There will be times where one person does more of one thing, while the other focuses on another.
Just a few years ago, the child-rearing and homemaking mostly fell to me (as did the growing, birthing and breastfeeding of babies).Now my husband is taking on the brunt as I try to accelerate my career, but I know it will eventually come back around – he does, too.Point is – and it should hopefully go without saying – we don’t split tasks based on gender, or even on who earns more.
After all, earning more does not necessarily equate to working harder or longer hours.We are equal in our responsibility to our kids, our house and our life together and whomever has capacity, does whatever task is required.My hope is that, if more men take on as much or the majority of the home and childcare responsibilities – even for a period of time – perhaps more women will feel they can step into leadership roles.
It’s up to all of us to make the change. The post Editor’s letter: Why International Women’s Day is still important for women in property appeared first on realestate.com.
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