Gender Disparity in the Real Estate Sector: An Exploratory Study of the Opportunities

and Threats

1. Introduction:

The world has moved from steam-powered labor-intensive factories to fully automated robots
operated manufacturing units, despite all this advancement mindset of people hasn’t changed and
gender disparity still remains an issue in this world. Workplace Gender Disparity is unequal
treatment and opportunities for people based on their sex in the workplace. According to World
Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report, 2020 that calculates gender gap between women
and men in four key areas: health, education, economy, and politics to gauge the state of gender
equality, in 2020, the Global Gender Gap score stands at 68.6%. This means that there still
remains a gap of 31.4% (World Economic Forum, 2020).

The scope of this paper is to study the gender disparity in the Real Estate Sector. Real Estate
Sector comprises of facilitating rent, sale & purchase of land, houses, and buildings. The paper
would give a Pakistani perspective and it is observed that there is a great disparity of
participation in Pakistan’s real estate section between men and women. Both as real estate agents
and as clients in the purchasing process. This study aims to go in-depth into the reasons for
gender disparity in Real Estate Sector. It will also aim to study the real estate sector as
potentially an unexplored employment opportunity for Pakistani women and study the
willingness of women to participate in the real estate purchase process given more female
realtors would rise to these jobs. It will talk about opportunities and threats that this sector has to
offer to women workforce participation.

The layout of the paper would be that it would start with analyzing the history of global gender
disparity, conditions of gender disparity in sales job globally and conditions of gender disparity
in the Real Estate Sector globally. The paper would than in detail study the same issues in
Pakistani perspective and will use first-hand questionnaires and interviews of Pakistani men and
women workers to represent a true and latest image of Gender Disparity in the Real Estate sector
to the audience.

Limitation of the paper is that at present the Real Estate Sector of Pakistan is densely male-
dominated and female representation is bare minimum, therefore, as a job of a real estate
employee resembles a typical sales job, gender disparity and opportunities & challenges for
women is sales job are analyzed within the scope of this paper so that the audience can
appreciate potential and problems that would have existed or will exist if there is female
participation in Pakistan’s real estate sector.

2. Literature Review

2.1 Global Perspective:

2.1.1 Gender Disparity in the Workplace:

Before the industrial revolution, there was no discrimination and both men and women worked
on small scale, mostly family-managed, agricultural and manufacturing work (Kalev & Deutsch,
2018). The industrial revolution in Europe and in the U.S. brought the concept of market
production. The new paid workforce that worked at factories and mines was composed of men,
while women worked in the household, taking care of children and other day to day living needs
that could free men for long hours of exploitative work at factories and mines. By 1890, only
17% of women in the U.S. worked in paid labor, with white married women being the least
likely to be employed. (Padavic & Reskin, 2002) Early labor protection laws in the U.S. further
added to gender segregation at work by banning women from blue-collar jobs as they thought it
affected women’s health or dignity. Women got a temporary chance to enter the male-dominated
workforce to fill-in for missing hands under Wartime labor regulations, especially during World
War II. However, they lost their jobs to veteran men after the war. This was backed by a massive
government campaign, which included, among other things, closing child care centers that
flourished during the war and sponsoring cultural and educational campaigns heralding intensive
motherhood as key for child and family wellbeing. (Hewlett, 1986). Things started to change in
1960s with the change in regulations and new regulations coming in like the 1964 Civil Rights
Act, which outlawed discrimination based on sex and other categories, the 1965 Pay Equity Act,
and Affirmative Action regulations for women beginning in 1967. By 1970s, these legislation
and active women’s movements improved women’s labor force participation (Stainback &
Tomaskovic-Devey, 2012). Ever since then things have started to change, gender disparity in the
workforce has started getting recognition but still, gender disparity has not completely vanished.
The Gender Gap Report 2016 underlines that it will take the world another 118 years—or until
2133 – to close the economic gap entirely (World Economic Forum, 2016).
2.1.2 Gender Disparity in Sales Job:

Dan H. Robertson and Donald W. Hackett conducted a study using 250 sales managers (125 men
& 125 women) and tested for two hypotheses: 1) There is no significant difference in the
perceptions of salesmen and saleswomen toward the male salesperson, 2) There is no significant
difference in the perceptions of salesmen and saleswomen toward the female salesperson. Where
everyone agreed with the first hypothesis, but it was observed there was a difference in
perception towards female sales persons (Robertson & Hackett, 1977). Sales and sales
management are seen as "men's work" and it is believed that women are not fit for such
occupations (Comer and Drollinger, 1997). The prevailing stereotype of women as sales and
marketing managers presents them as lacking in the key skills such as toughness, assertiveness
and the need to control and dominate (Maclaran and Catterall, 2000, pp. 638 and 639). Instead,
they are presented as being over-concerned with the "soft" and "relational" aspects of selling
(Lane et al., 2000). Due to these reasons, females are often discriminated against while recruiting
salesforce staff, and men are preferred over them. During the recruitment process inclusion of a
question concerning sex or marital status on the application form. As salespeople are often
required to travel extensively or relocate during hiring interviews there are questions concerning
a female candidate's marriage plans, family planning, or desire for a spouse or children. Such
things indicate that women are discriminated against in sales jobs hiring and there is exists a bias
in favor of men (Shepherd & Heartfield, 1991). Even if women are hired and they start to work
as saleswomen, they are discriminated against both by coworkers and customers. Salesmen
always feel superior, they believe that saleswomen lacks commitment & skills and devalue
women coworkers. The customers have a stereotype that women do know about the product,
they cannot provide technical support (products like Industrial Products) and often at the buying
side the representative is men who prefer dealing with male salesman (Lane & Crane, 2002).

2.1.3 Gender Disparity in Real Estate Sector:

In 1960s globally the real estate sector was densely male-dominated, however, from 1980’s
female participation in real estate sector started to increase due to the benefits that this industry
offer like most important one being flexible hours (Advancing Women in Leadership Journal,
2020). However, women working in this field complaint that they are discriminated against in
hiring and there exists a glass ceiling at the workplace. And this discrimination is because of the
stereotypes or the real-world problem women has to face (Ling et al., 2015). Ishaya (2011) list
downs the stereotypes and challenges as: (1) Being seeing as not capable of practicing the
profession; (2) Family problem taking care of the home front, combining it with work; (4)
Family problem; (5) Having to strike balance between challenges at work and the home front; (6)
Having to wake up in the morning and take care of the home front and then not able to come to
the office early; (7) Limited hours to work, because of household chaos; and (8) Reluctant to
travel (Ishaya, 2011). Having these considerations in mind women are not given equal
opportunities real estate sector, they are discriminated at the time of hiring, devalued by the
coworkers and there exists a glass ceiling that hinders their career growth (Ling et al., 2015).
Putting aside the stereotypes, the real estate sector is ideal for women from both the company’s
and employee’s perspectives. From company’s perspective: empathy and relationship building is
one of the key traits you require to be a successful salesperson in real estate and women having
feminine and nurturing characteristics have more of these skills than men do, so women likely
perform better than men in the real estate sector. Moreover, from women employee perspective,
the job has benefits like flexible working hours and most women real estate sales representative
feel that they have to give fewer hours to the work as compared to what they thought and since a
lot of women are involved in the consumer side so they feel a connect and comfort in real estate
sales job as compared to other sales job (Advancing Women in Leadership Journal, 2020).

3.1 Pakistani Perspective:

3.1.1 Gender Disparity in the Workplace:

According the Global Gender Gap Report 2019, Pakistan ranked a low 151 out of 153 countries
on the gender parity index. Pakistani women’s participation in the workplace has grown slowly
over the last 30 years. Women’s participation in 1990 was 13.96 % and has only grown up to
24% in 2019 – that too, which is fueled mostly by unpaid work in Pakistan’s rural areas.
Interestingly, female workforce participation in urban areas has only increased from 7% to 11%
in the last two decades, according to the World Bank. In addition to slow growth in women’s
participation in the workforce, there has been an existing disparity between the roles of men and
women in the Pakistani workforce in terms of opportunities and barriers to employment where
negative attitudes are held towards working women in Pakistan. Ali, Khan and Munaf (2013)
investigated the difference in attitude towards women in managerial positions between male and
female employees. Their testing sample included 50 employees – 25 male and 25 female with
age range of 24-25 year old. Their supplementary findings revealed that males residing in joint
families had negative sex-role stereotypes towards female managers. (Ali, Khan and Munaf,
2013).  Pervaiz, S., Rehman, M., Javed, J. and Raza, I. (2015), investigated the managerial
attitudes towards women managers in Pakistan and Turkey, their findings indicated that
Pakistani women have more favorable attitudes towards women managers as compared to
Pakistani men. However, Pakistani men show more positive attitudes towards woman managers
as compared to Turkish men. The labor skills survey conducted in 2013, showed the attitudes of
Pakistani men and women towards women employment. When stated, ‘Married women should
be allowed to work outside the home’ – only 46.4% of rural men agreed while 60% of urban men
agreed to the statement leading to an overall 51% of men only agreeing to the statement. (World
Bank Group, 2018)

3.1.2 Barriers to Employment

There are many reasons that cause barriers to women’s participation in the Pakistani workforce.
The World Bank classifies these into the following: (World Bank Group, 2018)

 Normative barriers - Marriage, Mobility, Safety and Attitudes towards female Labour
participation
 Household Constraints: The Burden of Housework and Childcare
 Human Capital and Economic Barriers: Education, Occupation, Firm Preferences and
Workplace Laws

Marriage has seen to be associated with lesser female participation in the workforce. In both
2005 and 2014, married women in Pakistan were 7% less likely to work as compare to unmarried
women. The 2013, labor skills surveys shows that limited mobility impacts women’s
participation in the workforce. Women in Pakistan often do not travel alone even for basic
errands. Reportedly, only about 30% of women would travel to local markets alone. This extent
of lack of mobility impacts women’s ability to join most kind of jobs. Similarly, women’s safety
outside their homes is another concern. The labour skills survey of 2013 reported that less than
half of the women feel safe to walk outside their homes. This explains why most women in
Pakistan also preferred at-home jobs. (World Bank Group, 2018)
A major barrier to female employment in Pakistan is the division of roles and responsibilities
between men and women. Women are seen to be responsible for house work like cooking,
cleaning and raising children which inhibits them from committing to out-of-home jobs
especially those that require commitment to certain number of office hours. 83% of women who
do not work listed housework as a reason. Moreover, occupational choices for women in
Pakistan is limited as most Pakistani women do not receive higher formal education as compared
to men. Akhunzada, Z., Khattak, M. and Ashraf investigated the socio-cultural barriers to
women’s employment specifically in Kohat, Pakistan. Their sample size was 405 women across
various institutions in the area, responses reveal that women felt there was significant
discrimination against them compared to men. Significant reasons were: lack of vocational and
professional opportunities, restriction in female education, family restriction to work and
violence at workplaces to list a few. Choudhry, A., Mutalib, R. and Ismail, N. (2019) listed that
socio-cultural barriers that affects women’s economic empowerment are mainly educational
barriers, decent work and access to property. Menhas, R., Jabeen, N., Akhtar, S. and Yaqoob, M.
(2013), studied cultural barriers to female employment in Pakistan with a sample size of 120
females across four villages in Pakistan. Their results revealed that women believed that the
main barriers to women development are mainly: male dominancy, low education, injustice,
misrepresentation by the media, and female presentation by media. Umer, S., Othman, Z. and
Hassan, K. (2016) investigated Pakistani women’s political participation in Baluchistan which
can be used to look at workforce participation. 10 women and the males in their families were
interviewed. The main socio-cultural reasons identified were as per the following:

1. Male Dominancy: Women do not have decision making power

Purdah (men do not want to allow women to come in contact with other males)
2. Religious Misconception: Unethical and Unreligious Violation of Islamic rules (women
cannot be a leader)
3. Nomadic Life Lack of awareness about political participation: (as Primary aim to care
of the livestock)

3.1.2 Spouse Support

(Ambreen Khursheed et al., 2018) studied the phenomenan of work-family conflict in relation to
working women in Pakistan. In-depth interviews from 50 female respondents working in 12
private and public organizations of Pakistan were conducted. The findings showed a strong
negative relationship between long working hours and lack of spousal support with work-family
conflict. Factors contributing to work-family conflict were identified as follows:

 Long working hours

 Family demands
 Individual perception
 High work demand
 Lack of spouse support
 Inflexible schedule
 Personal issues

A women in workforce study conducted by Saman Amir and Ahmed Durrani, interviewed a
select group of men from the Pakistani cities of Karachi, Lahore, Quetta and Peshawar to discuss
women working outside their homes. Most men interviewed said they prefer home-based work
for their wives, with female-appropriate jobs that will create less-interaction with other non-
family men in order to be culturally appropriate. Interviewed men believed women to work as
care-givers at home rather than work jobs. Moreover, N. Saher et al. (2013) explored the ways in
which married women manage work-family conflict. The methodology involved interviewing 20
married working women with atleast one child. The results indicate that personal support
(husband’s and family support, day cares services, hired labour and joint family system for child
care) as a main source for minimizing work-family conflict and that women faced pressured
from their families to maintain their dual roles as mothers and at work as employees.
 
 
References:

(2020). Msaes.org. Retrieved 13 February 2020, from

http://www.msaes.org/article_85823_4340b8afdd31f7ff8dbe020c98006a7d.pdf 
Advancing Women in Leadership Journal. (2020). Ww.advancingwomen.com.

Akhunzada, Z., Khattak, M. and Ashraf, A. (n.d.). Socio-Cultural Barriers to Empowerment:

A Study of Working Women in Vocational Training Institutes of
District Kohat. Department of Social Work,  Kohat  University of Science & Technology, Kohat,
10(2). 

Ali, U., Khan, A. and Munaf, S. (2013). Attitudes toward Women in Managerial Position in
Pakistan: A Comparative Study. International Journal of Information and Education Technology,
3(3). http://www.ijiet.org/papers/301-N10013.pdf

Choudhry, A., Mutalib, R. and Ismail, N. (2019). Socio-Cultural factors affecting Women

Economic Empowerment in Pakistan: A Situation Analysis. International Journal of Academic
Research in Business and Social Sciences, 9(5). 
Comer, L. B. and T. Drollinger: 1997, 'Looking Inside the Glass Walls: The Case of Women on
the Industrial Sales Force', Equal Opportunities International 16(4), 1-18.

Global Gender Gap Report. (2016). World Economic Forum.

Global Gender Gap Report. (2020). World Economic Forum.

Güney, S., Gohar, R., Akıncı, S. and Akıncı, M. (2006). Attitudes toward Women Managers in
Turkey and Pakistan. Journal of International Women's Studies, 8(1).

Hewlett, S. A. (1986). A lesser life: The myth of women’s liberation in America. NY: William
Morrow.

Ishaya, D. M. (2011). The Duties and Challenges Faced by Female Estate Surveyors and
Valuers-Empirical Challenges from Kaduna, Nigeria. Marrakech.
(2020). Documents.worldbank.org. Retrieved 8 March 2020, from
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/444061529681884900/pdf/Female-labor-force-
participation-in-Pakistan-what-do-we-know.pdf

(2020). Www3.weforum.org. Retrieved 8 March 2020, from

http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GGGR_2020.pdf

Kalev, Alexandra & Deutsch, Gal. (2018). Gender Inequality and Workplace Organizations:
Understanding Reproduction and Change.

Lane, N., & Crane, A. (2002). Revisiting Gender Role Stereotyping in the Sales
Profession. Journal of Business Ethics,40(2), 121-132.

Lane, N., D. W. Cravens and N. F. Piercy: 2000, 'Salesperson Organizational Citizenship

Behavior and Sales Unit Effectiveness: Exploring the Gender Dimension', AMA Winter
Conference, February, San Antonio

Ling, W., Sulaiman, N. and Arif, N. (2015). Women in Malaysia real estate industry:
professional challenges and opportunities. Centre of Estate and Facilities Management.

Maclaran, P. and M. Catterall: 2000, 'Bridging the Knowledge Divide: Issues of the Feminisation
of the Marketing Practice', Journal of Marketing Management, Special Issue, 16(6), 635-
646.

Menhas, R., Jabeen, N., Akhtar, S. and Yaqoob, M. (2013). Cultural Barriers of Female

Empowerment. Afro Asian Journal of Anthropology and Social Policy, 4(1). 
Padavic, I., & Reskin, B. (2002). Women and men at work. California: Pine Forge Press.

Robertson, D., & Hackett, D. (1977). Saleswomen: Perceptions, Problems and

Prospects. Journal of Marketing, 41(3), 66-71. 

Saher, Noreen & Matloob, Tasmia & Tahreen, Fariya & Ali, Shazia & Sulim, Galya.

(2013). Work-family conflict in Pakistan: juggling of activities on personal values and
commitments. Middle East J. of Management. 1. 28 - 48. 10.1504/MEJM.2013.054079. 
Shepherd, C., & Heartfield, J. (1991). Discrimination Issues in the Selection of Salespeople: A
Review and Managerial Suggestions. The Journal of Personal Selling and Sales
Management, 11(4), 67-75.

Should women get a job? “Yes...but” say Pakistani men. (2019). World Bank Blogs. Retrieved
13 February 2020, from https://blogs.worldbank.org/endpovertyinsouthasia/should-
women-get-job-yesbut-say-pakistani-men 
Stainback, K., & Tomaskovic-Devey, D. (2012). Documenting desegregation: Racial and gender
segregation in private sector employment since the Civil Rights Act. Russell Sage.

Umer, S., Othman, Z. and Hassan, K. (2016). Socio-Cultural Obstacles to Women's Participation
in Politics, In Rural Areas of Balochistan, Pakistan. International Journal of Business and Social
Science, 7(10). 
Work-Family Conflict among Married Female Professionals in Pakistan