Currently there is approximately 517,800 people employed as either a Real Estate Broker and/or Sales Agent, an ever growing field which has become increasingly stronger in the past couple of years. In 2006 the amount of women that held positions in these two fields which are often so closely intertwined was roughly 36%. When looking back at over all employment rates for women over the past couple of decades this is a significant number that is ever increasing and climbing higher. Since 1998 over half of all women ages 16-64 have been employed in the work force which beats the previous records of women in 1950 by almost double the amount. Why are all these numbers important? Why should you care about this topic if you're a man or even more importantly a female? What these numbers represent is a slow but very important shift in the work force, one that has been on going for three generations now. More women each year either join the workforce or take the necessary steps to advance further in their career. More women each year realize they too can have more financial stability and control over their lives by investing and/or joining the real estate market.
Coming from the female dominated job sector of teaching (checkout my new member intro for more info) to the male dominated industries of food and real estate I am able to share both of my experiences and my hope is that when women see this post they'll be inspired to want more for themselves if they don't already as well as push for more demanding, rewarding, and hard working job opportunities and positions. I also hope that men whom read this post at the end of it will want to give women more opportunities within their job sector if they have the power to do so as well as encourage your daughters, sisters and mothers to strive for positions of power not because they should but because they deserve to and are more than capable of holding such a position. As I previously stated I was formerly a teacher and in this field it has usually been a female dominated sector especially for younger grades like elementary, this isn't due to the fact that females are better at teaching children because this certainly isn't the case its just a fact that more women occupy the field. The relationships you create between faculty, administration, and parents are very close knit and almost have a family feel about them. You create a plan to teach the children and stick to it, most importantly you make sure the children are enjoying class and the information they're learning. Most men would say this is a job for a woman because it requires love, attention, compassion and sometimes tenderness. I had and will always have a passion for teaching, it's something special and I will never forget the memories and relationships I created, but I am happy I walked away from it to pursue a personal career where I could be my own boss as well as control more of my own life.
I've noticed that within the restaurant industry relationships cannot be so close knit, as many of my previous relationships while teaching had been. There has to be a fine line between boss and friend. One of the many things that I've learned as an employer is you can have a worker who is bad at their job but they're not necessarily a bad person. Someone can be charismatic, charming, and or kind and simply just be poor at the job they're performing for a variety of reasons. Creating a "friend" like relationship with your employees can sometimes lead to them believing they can slack off at work and not perform the duties they're suppose to be doing. I'm not saying you as the employer need to be a tyrant 24/7, like I said there needs to be a fine line you walk where you're the boss but not necessarily berating your employees. The reason I bring up these examples is because women often times show more compassion than men, which ironically most men would say is a weakness, but it's not. Its a tool we can use to our advantage because it allows us to walk this fine line between boss and friend to many people whether it be vendors, customers and or employees. Women can have compassion as well as show strength in whatever job position they may hold, more women just need to know which situations call for which. I've talked to many men who wish they had this tool set, most people respond better to positive reinforcement where as negative reinforcement can usually be paired with a decrease in performance. Being able to walk this fine line between boss and friend will usually result in a better work ethic from your employees.
Most women are born with these innate tools like compassion, strength, and the eagerness to be more. As I've previously said since switching jobs and becoming a restaurant owner and real estate agent as well as owning my own company has given me more control over my life than I could have ever imagined, and it has really increased my personal happiness as well. More women can and are having this dream become a reality each year, you don't have to leave your life in the hands of someone else or pursue dreams that aren't yours, take charge of your life today and make it what you want it to be and don't stop until you're exactly where you want to be.
New Member Introduction:
https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/55/topics/399643-who-is-mary-derman-and-where-did-she-come-from?page=1#p2512584
