When in late November we asked the city’s commercial real estate leaders to submit as comprehensive a list of female professionals on their payroll as possible—be they lawyers, accountants, brokers or analysts—the references to Mitt Romney’s infamous line about binders of women came early and often.
As questionable as it may have sounded at first Read More
Last week, The Commercial Observer spoke to nearly one hundred prominent women in commercial real estate, most of whom were happy to report that industry complaints about mistreatment or outright sexual harassment are now few and far between, compared to five years ago, yes, but especially in comparison to 20 years ago, when fewer than half as many women in New York held top executive positions in the industry.
But the problems created by such disparities still persist, as evidenced by myriad anecdotes relayed to Commercial Observer reporters during interviews last week. Below, one executive’s sordid tale of a negotiation in the early ’00s with a well-known financial services company honcho and her well-behaved male boss on the eve of the Great Recession.
Names and details have been redacted to protect the innocent. Read More
