From Access to Influence: The Quiet Shift Reshaping Women’s Advancement in Commercial Real Estate

In commercial real estate, progress rarely announces itself. It happens quietly—across conference tables, in underwriting discussions, and on late-night deal calls, where decisions are shaped long before they are formalized. For women in the industry, that quiet progress has been both hard-won and incomplete.

Nearly forty years after CREW Network's founding, women now make up approximately 38 percent of the commercial real estate workforce—a figure that has remained largely unchanged for two decades. Although compensation gaps have narrowed, women still hold only a small fraction of executive roles.

While we need the pipeline to grow, that is not the problem. Access is.

The Limits of Mentorship

For years, mentorship has been positioned as the industry’s primary solution—a means to guide, encourage, and retain emerging talent. And it has delivered meaningful impact.

At Fidelity National Financial (FNF), programs such as Women Inspire have connected professionals across markets, functions, and experience levels—helping individuals build confidence, expand their networks, and navigate a complex, relationship-driven business more effectively.

What began as a focused mentorship initiative has evolved into a broader, organization-wide approach—embedding mentorship, sponsorship, and leadership development more deeply into how talent is supported and advanced across FNF.

Even with this evolution, mentorship—by design—operates within existing structures. It helps individuals understand the system, but does not always change their position within it. Across the industry, this distinction is becoming harder to ignore.

A Company Reflecting the Industry—and Where it’s Going

To understand what meaningful progress looks like, it helps to examine the organizations shaping the industry at scale. At FNF, women represent more than 69 percent of the U.S. workforce and 43 percent of leadership roles—a composition that exceeds many benchmarks in financial services.

This is not coincidental. It reflects a long-standing commitment to developing and retaining talent in a business where continuity, expertise, and relationships are critical. The company reports an average tenure of more than ten years.

Retention, often overlooked in discussions of advancement, is itself a form of access. It creates the conditions for careers to compound—where experience translates into influence.

Still, representation alone does not resolve the deeper structural question: Who is positioned to lead?

Where Advancement Actually Happens

Commercial real estate is not a linear profession. Careers are shaped less by tenure and more by exposure—to clients, capital, and complexity.

The defining moments often look like this:

• Being invited to a negotiation, not just briefed afterward

• Being introduced to a client as a decision-maker, not a participant

• Being asked to lead a transaction that extends beyond prior experience

These moments are rarely formalized. They are granted. And they are precisely where sponsorship resides.

The Subtle Mechanics of Sponsorship

Unlike mentorship, sponsorship is rarely explicitly labeled as such. It appears in small but consequential decisions:

• A senior leader recommends a colleague for a high-profile deal.

• A client introduction is framed as a partnership, not a supporting role.

• A name is put forward in a room where that person is not present.

These actions often unfold quietly, yet their impact is cumulative.

Within organizations like FNF, this shift is increasingly visible—not as a standalone initiative, but as a cultural expectation. Professionals who once benefited from mentorship are now advocating for others and expanding access across teams, markets, and disciplines.

The result is not an immediate transformation, but something more durable:
a widening circle of influence.

Momentum, Measured in Moments

The effects of this shift are not always captured by formal metrics. More often than not, they reveal themselves in small, pivotal moments.

For Cindy Malone, SVP & Director of Sales at Chicago Title, NCS Chicago, those moments were once defined by hesitation. Early in her career, she recalls walking into industry events, picking up her name badge, and quietly leaving—uncertain where she fit in or how to engage.

Years later, those same rooms look very different.

Today, she enters with intention—introducing colleagues, facilitating connections, and ensuring others don’t have to navigate those spaces alone. What once required persistence now has influence.

“Early on, you’re focused on finding your place in the room,” she says. “Over time, you realize the real impact comes from bringing others into the room with you.”

Across FNF, similar patterns are emerging. Professionals who once sought guidance are now:

• Leading multi-market transactions

• Expanding their roles and visibility

• Acting as mentors—and increasingly, as sponsors

In this sense, momentum is not a single outcome. It is a progression—from participation to presence and ultimately to leadership.

Momentum, Measured at Scale

In many industries, progress is measured by representation. In commercial real estate, a more telling indicator is how opportunity flows through an organization.

At FNF, that momentum is reflected not only in workforce composition but also in broader investments in people and long-term growth:

• Strong employee retention, supporting continuity and career progression

• Ongoing investment in future talent, including scholarship and development initiatives

• A sustained focus on inclusion across hiring, development, and leadership pathways

These efforts are not separate from the business—they are intertwined with it.

In a sector where trust underpins every transaction, organizations that invest in people tend to build stronger teams—and, by extension, stronger client relationships.

An Industry in Transition

Commercial real estate is, in many ways, at an inflection point.

Hybrid work has reshaped visibility. Market cycles have redefined opportunity. And the growing complexity of transactions has heightened the importance of collaboration across disciplines and geographies.

At the same time, expectations are changing.

Professionals entering the industry today are not only evaluating opportunities—they are also assessing access, culture, and long-term viability.

For organizations, this introduces a new imperative: not only to attract talent but also to ensure that talent sees a future worth pursuing.

From Networks to Advocacy

What distinguishes high-performing organizations is not simply the presence of networks, but what those networks enable.

Connections, on their own, are not enough. They must translate into action.

This is where the transition from mentorship to sponsorship becomes critical:

• From advice to advocacy

• From guidance to opportunity

• From participation to leadership

At its best, this shift is not programmatic—it is embedded. It becomes part of how decisions are made, teams are built, and leaders define success.

Jill Sharif, a CREW Network Board member and VP, National Business Development for Boston’s National Commercial Services operation, sees this shift as both an industry responsibility and an opportunity. “We’ve made meaningful progress in bringing women into the industry,” she notes. “The next step is ensuring they have access to the relationships, opportunities, and visibility that allow them to advance. This is where organizations—and individuals—can achieve the greatest impact.”

A Quiet Recalibration

The future of women in commercial real estate will not be defined by a single initiative or moment. It will be shaped, as it always has been, by a series of decisions about who is included, who is trusted, and who is given the opportunity to lead.

Those decisions are already beginning to shift. Not dramatically. Not universally. But measurably so.

Melissa Hall, EVP & Division Manager at Fidelity National Financial, views this shift as a defining responsibility of leadership. “Careers don’t advance simply because someone is ready,” she notes. “They advance because someone is willing to advocate—especially in the moments that matter most. Creating that access is how we build stronger teams and a stronger industry.”

And in an industry where change has historically been incremental, that shift—from access to advocacy, from participation to influence—may prove to be the most meaningful signal of all.