The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors has completed its first review of women working in the built environment and found that while there has been improvement in recent years little has changed since it began life 155 years ago.
Founded in 1868, RICS has 134,000 paying members globally and regulates professional standards in the development and management of land, real estate, construction and infrastructure. A RICS qualification as a surveyor takes four years and is essential for work as a surveyor or valuer at many companies in many jurisdictions.
RICS has links with other national surveying institutions, collaborates with other professional bodies, and, in 2013, was a founder member of a coalition to develop the International Property Measurement Standards.
When RICS was founded in London in 1868, the institution had 49 members, none of whom were women. The first female chartered surveyor was Irene Barclay, in 1922, followed by Evelyn Perry in 1923.
RICS records show that by 1990 female representation had very gradually increased to reach 5%. That means that 128 women surveyors obtained their membership in the 20 years from 1970 to 1990, compared with 3,147 men. From 1991 to 2011, those figures were 753 women and 6,784 men. Based on data from February 2022, women represent only 18% of RICS's then-139,000 international professionals.
The total number of women chartered surveyors varies across regions. In the UK and Ireland women represented only 17% of approximately 99,000 members, placing it around halfway up the global standings. Russia and Mainland China have the best representation for women.
The RICS membership comprises Associate, Member, Fellows and Honorary Members. However, only MRICS and FRICS are chartered members, with FRICS being awarded to professionals "who have demonstrated their individual professional achievements and stand out in the eyes of their peers, business and the public", according to the institution. Only 4% of women members were Fellows in comparison to 16% of men.
The survey drills down into the areas women are most and least likely to work in.
Of the 23 careers, land and resources has the greatest representation of women at 36%, compared with minerals and waste, at just 6%. Commercial real estate is sixth best represented at around 27% while building surveying comes third bottom at 10%.
RICS says the figures show the need for more targeted analysis and sector-specific strategies for improvement.
The average length of a woman’s membership is 16 years, and the average age that women leave is 47. But men retain their membership for an average of 28 years and are staying until 61 years of age. RICS says the industry must question why women are leaving the surveying profession or workforce much earlier than men.
Emma Mason, MRICS, is quoted in the survey as criticising the industry for not supporting women who take time off to raise children. "If women stay at home to raise young children, we are considered as having no economic value and we become sort of invisible. That’s certainly something I’ve struggled with because surveying was and still is a huge part of my identity."
Report author Sybil Taunton, the head of diversity, equity and inclusion at RICS, speaking to CoStar News, said one of the stand-out findings is the lack of women in the most senior positions.
"It is interesting that the cliff-edge age for women leaving the profession is 47. They are leaving too soon to get to that senior level. It raises questions about how can we address this – it sticks out. There are a lot of assumptions that women leave when they decide to start families but this shows they are coming back and then they are leaving. We want to have more qualitative input from women on why this is, but we can say for some it is lack of flexibility and for some the culture is so toxic they think 'I deserve better than this'. Also, some are experiencing the menopause and policies are not in place to reflect this. So much more needs to be done in these areas."
RICS says existing surveys and other qualitative studies have shown that inadequate and inequitable recruitment, development and promotion practices contribute to losing women from the profession, but so does organisational culture and the impact of menopause, career breaks and caring responsibilities.
The organisation points out that the data in the survey is itself weakened by the industry's problems appealing to women and ethnic minorities. It says only 234 professionals took part globally, 79% of whom were from the UK and Ireland and 73% from white ethnic backgrounds.
The low percentage of participation from members globally and members belonging to ethnic minority groups is reflective of RICS’ strong focus in the UK and Ireland and the lack of diversity within the membership, it says.
Taunton says this means there does need to be context around data such as why Russia and Mainland China have better representation for women. "These are very small memberships so that needs to be recognised. But in APAC they are doing really well in terms of gender balance and advancing better than the US and UK so there is some learning to have there. Equally the Middle East is doing better on this issue."
Taunton adds that the data is critical in really understanding what needs to be done going forward. "This needs to be driven by data and insight from the people involved in what is happening. The numbers that show how slow progress has been will hopefully light the fire for the industry to do more."
Taunton says Irene Barclay's story as the first RICS-affiliated female surveyor is a poignant one in the context of the World Economic Forum's projections that it will take 136 years to close the gender gap.
"If you look at how much has changed since Irene Barclay in 1922, progress has been very slow. It really does show that if we don't make deliberate changes to make pay more equitable and the industry more attractive and safe for women than it will take 136 years."
In terms of routes into surveying, most respondents became aware of surveying as a profession from a family member or friend, at work or by doing their own research. When participants were asked, on a scale from 1–10, how likely they were to recommend the profession to women who are considering being surveyors (where 10 is extremely likely), the response was positive, with an average of 7.5.
RICS says the words or phrases they would use to describe a career in surveying to someone outside of the profession were also positive and included "varied", "requires good people skills" and "good opportunities". But it points out that one observation repeatedly made is that it is "male-dominated".
A total of 69% of participants said that they only sometimes felt valued or never felt valued in performing their roles at work, and 63% felt that women either had to work harder to prove themselves to achieve recognition in their workplace or that it did not matter how hard women work as there is no equal recognition.
The biggest barriers faced by women in developing careers were lack of recognition of skills, the culture driving feelings of imposter syndrome and unconscious bias. Lack of access to flexible or remote working and workplace harassment were also stated.
More than half of respondents said their organisation do not have a strategy to attract more women into the profession, and nearly 25% did not know. The most common initiatives in respondents’ organisations to attract women to the profession included: networking or mentoring schemes for women; training to improve diversity and to support women in the profession; and having an outreach programme through schools, colleges and universities.
RICS says that although the natural and built environment sector has seen improvements over the years in terms of attitudes and behaviours towards women in the profession, as well as in practices and policies that affect them, there is still a "long way to go in transforming the culture of the profession so that women are not only represented across all levels of organisations, but so they have equitable support, opportunities and pay".
It said it is encouraging women surveyors from all regions to participate in what will now be an annual Women in the Profession survey so that it can accurately identify areas most in need of change and address them properly.
Taunton says real estate seems to be performing a bit better than peers in the built environment but it is small comfort.
"When we branch outside of the built environment we are way behind industries like finance and law. There are real lessons to be learned in best practice."
Taunton says sadly the areas women are saying in the survey need to be urgently addressed are the same ones that have been talked about for decades. "It is equal pay, making sure people are treated fairly, flexibility at work and for organisations to be more flexible about when and how people do their jobs as long as they meet objectives. It is about equal opportunities to be considered in development plans and succession pipelines.
"At the RICS it is for us to provide more mentoring opportunities, networking and professional development. And as a professional body we will do more to push the needle on how regulated firms are held accountable.
"But also this is a call to action to encourage women to take part in the survey going forwards and for members to submit data so we can provide more refined reporting on this issue."