EDITOR’S COMMENT This week’s EG features a collection of letters from senior leaders in the industry talking about the opportunity the sector presents for the next generation. Those leaders, to celebrate this year’s International Women’s Day, are all female. And while that is significant because we still don’t have enough female leaders in this industry, on reading their letters it gave me cause to hope that one day soon it might be a moot point.
You can click here to read their letters in full, but I can paraphrase a bit for you here. The letters spoke about this industry in a way that is so inspiring. Each author spoke about the opportunity the built environment offers as a career, they spoke about being able to make a difference, to shape places, to make an impact and even to change the world. They use words like “choice”, “reward”, “opportunity”, “love”. These letters are so powerful and offer a view of the sector that we forget to talk about. Imagine being a teenager sat in class, probably a bit bored, wondering what you want to do with your life. Then someone starts talking about this industry using words like that. Who wouldn’t want to be part of it?
Those letters made me reflect on my own journey in this sector. What have I experienced over the 20 years I’ve had the pleasure of writing about real estate? And how would I talk about the sector to anyone who wanted to follow in my footsteps? In fact, how would I talk about it to someone who had no idea they could build a life writing about this wonderful world of bricks and mortar?
First off, I would tell them it’s really not about bricks and mortar. That’s the physical representation, but the industry is really about people and relationships. It’s about creativity and problem solving. It’s full of smart people, thinkers and, increasingly, carers.
Like many of the women writing for us this week, I have had my fair share of being the “only one”. I’ve been asked to make the coffee, to take a coat. I’ve been spoken over, I’ve had the odd inappropriate remark, I’ve been told to “stick to my knitting”. But that was then. And, if I’m honest, I can count those experiences on one hand. And I’ve been luckily enough to be tough enough to speak up when I’ve felt uncomfortable and usually there has been a heartfelt apology.
This industry is not perfect, and I of course can only speak from my own experience as white woman, but it is improving and I would wholeheartedly recommend it as a place to build a wonderful career, to have amazing experiences and make a difference. I certainly feel that I’ve been able to do that. I’ve had the privilege of being a part of this industry and I want more to come in and have that too.
We have to fling those doors wide open. And that’s on us. That requires us using words like those you will read in the letters we have published this week.
Read them. And write your own. Share it with us, but more importantly, share it with the next generation.
To start the chain, my short letter to every kid in the country would go something like this:
Dear X,
If you’re looking to make a difference, if you’re looking to build a better place for you, your family and the future, if you want to have fun, make friends, create amazing things, if you want to love, laugh and leave a legacy of change for the better, then look up. Look around you. See the places and the spaces in between. Feel what those places and spaces do to you. If you like that feeling, you can nurture it. If you don’t, you can change it. And there’s only one place you can do that. It’s here, in the heart of the built environment. Come join us.
To send feedback, e-mail samantha.mcclary@eg.co.uk or tweet @samanthamcclary or @EGPropertyNews
