The event Women in Real Estate was held on Thursday 12 April at the real estate company Bonum's premises at Uranienborg. The real estate industry is still male-dominated despite Norway being a relatively gender-equal country. In collaboration with Bonum, Fiona G. Yan (For Ynde), Siri A. Olsen (Girl Crush), Anja Amundsen (Girl Crush) and Marte S. Aasmundsen (Aasmundsen Consulting) invited attendees to lectures and panel debates where they wanted to highlight this issue.

The venue is filled with nearly 80 people, most of them women, who have come to listen to female role models. The background for the event is the lack of female leaders in real estate. Only 5 out of 50 managing directors in the largest real estate companies (including property management, development, trading, leasing and property/commercial brokerage) based on operating income in Norway are women.

– What an overwhelming response, begins Ann Kristin Aune, who is employed as a macro analyst at Bonum. She goes on to say that the event is there to share experiences and inspire each other before welcoming the first speaker onto the stage.

Prime Minister Erna Solberg is an important role model

Sonja Horn is group director for property management at Entra ASA and knows what she is talking about when it comes to being a woman in a male-dominated industry. Advice on how to tackle the challenges it entails comes easily. She emphasises that some have paved the way for women, and we should be proud of that.

– We must recognise that we have come quite far in Norway and not just complain. There are those who have gone before us and properly cleared the way, and therefore we have much to be proud of.

"If you don't dare to say it, I don't think you'll achieve it either."

– Sonja Horn

She believes we must be good role models and acknowledge and see that diversity is a value. Horn believes we must dare to say "we must have women, we must have ethnicity and we must have diversity".

She highlights Prime Minister Erna Solberg as an important role model and continues with "If Erna can do it, why shouldn't we?".

– If you don't dare to say it, I don't think you'll achieve it either. It's not by chance that Erna has succeeded, she has surely had it in her "top three" priorities.

Networking is one of the keys to succeeding in the industry

Horn highlights what has been decisive in relation to her own development in working life.

– I have had, particularly two male leaders, who have been fantastic role models and who have chosen women, precisely because they value diversity. They have seen that you get better discussions and better decisions. Half of our customers are women, so how can you sit as a bunch of only men and work out how to reach that part of the market.

Horn says that networking is one of the keys to succeeding in the industry. She reflects that there are still mostly men who are decision-makers, and therefore it is important to also be where they are, but that events like "Women in Real Estate" help to create a platform that highlights capable women in front of an audience consisting of both genders.

Wants to make being different less threatening

In dialogue with Anja Amundsen (Girl Crush) on stage, we get insight into designer Fatimah N. Mahdi's (Arkitekskap AS) experiences. Mahdi has an Arab background and wears a hijab, which she experiences as an additional challenge on top of being a woman in the male-dominated industry. But she also says that it has been an extreme strength to be a woman who stands outside the traditional.

– As a child, I quickly became one of the boys. I was quickly "desexualised" because I wore a hijab. It became a natural reaction, but what was interesting was that they (the boys) were automatically interested in what I had to say, instead of looking at me. I thought it was fun to provoke if someone said that I, because of the hijab, couldn't do things.

She wants to make being different less threatening, and show that you just have to dare in order to succeed. By highlighting what is regarded as prejudices and conveying information, she wants to influence society to understand that diversity is an advantage rather than a disadvantage. She is not afraid to provoke or to take up the fight against prejudices, and that is probably why she is regarded as a role model for many young Arab girls.

Today she is employed at Arkitektskap AS, and says that in her work she uses the research from her master's thesis, where she studied the phenomenon of "third cultural" and how we physically behave within architectures. She is concerned with seeing the person who will use the architecture first, and then expanding outwards.

– Facade, not important! It's what's inside, where we spend our time, that is important.

Women must dare to fight the battle with their spouse

In the subsequent panel debate, the question of challenges of being a woman in real estate is raised. Karianne Amlie says that leaders in many cases do not want to employ women with children for fear of high sick leave. She chose to employ a mother of five because she assumed that person must be an organised person with so many to look after, which is regarded as a positive quality. At the start of her career, she needed to confront the "boys' club" that dominated the workplace. - It is important to see advantages rather than disadvantages, she says.

Kirsti Høiseth, Marte Dalåker and Guro Tuv are the other participants in the panel. The latter two have together started the law firm TD Legal AS. Høiseth is owner of Olai Eiendom AS and Fossen Eiendom AS.

"I think it is important that we teach our daughters that it is okay to fail. You might not succeed the first time, or the second time, but then you get it."

– Kirsti Høiseth

Høiseth adds that as a woman you must dare to fight the battle with your spouse when it comes to traditional gender roles. One must stand firm on demands about the division of labour at home, because it should be possible to have both children and a career, she believes. She also believes that women can become better at challenging each other to dare more.

– Many boys and girls are raised differently, but I think it is important that we teach our daughters that it is okay to fail. You might not succeed the first time, or the second time, but then you get it! And then you learn so well from things you don't succeed at the first time.

Tuv gets the big question about how employers can facilitate for both men and women in the workplace. She says it is no use just saying that you care about gender balance, without a concrete goal. She believes it is absolutely crucial to have a goal, and that goal must be communicated internally. She also believes that women must dare to talk more about their goals and dreams.

– I think a lot can be done at the job interview. Many think "as long as I get a foot in the door, I'm secure", and take a position that is not necessarily the dream job. The problem arises when ambitions are not clearly communicated from the start. Talk about expectations and ask where this position can lead.

Dalåker reminds everyone to be themselves, it is not the intention that women should be more like men to fit in. As Horn also says in her presentation,

– You shouldn't become a man, then the whole diversity dimension disappears, says Horn.

In conclusion, Dalåker says that there are many everyday heroes and role models around us, for example in colleagues, and it is important that we support and cheer for each other!

Also present at the event was Stefan Yan, development director and partner at Bonum.

– It was a great event with many exciting discussions. The real estate industry, but also companies elsewhere in business, can benefit from such initiatives.