CREW Network Benchmark Study Reveals a Reduction in the Gender Pay Gap and Rise in Gender Discrimination in CRE
Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW) Network has released its fifth comprehensive benchmark study measuring progress for women over the last two decades, capturing critical industry-wide data and key workplace trends in commercial real estate.
The study, conducted every five years in partnership with the MIT Center for Real Estate, indicates that collective efforts to achieve parity in the industry are far from complete—in fact, little progress has been made in the 20 years. Key findings:
Consistent with the last four studies, the 2025 study found the following gender pay gaps, which have decreased since 2020:
Women make 4% less than men in base salaries
Women make 13% less in overall compensation packages, including base salary, commission, bonuses and profit-sharing
Women make 35% less in compensation from commission, bonuses, and profit-sharing.
Women comprise 38% of the commercial real estate industry overall. This percentage has remained almost constant over the last 20 years. For the fourth straight study, women hold approximately 9% of C-suite positions.
For the first time in the history of the study, women reported that gender discrimination in the workplace is their primary obstacle to career advancement. Gender discrimination has emerged as a greater barrier with each study.
For the fourth straight study, women listed having an internal senior executive mentor as their top contributing factor to future success.
30% of men and women aspire to the C-suite. This is a significant decline from past years; in 2015 and 2020, 40% and 43%, respectively, of male respondents aspired to C-suite jobs. The number of women aspiring to the C-suite dipped slightly, from 32% in 2020 to 30% in 2025.
The data also reflects a stagnation in the career ambitions of the youngest female respondents. Only 31% of women under 40 now report aspiring to a C-suite position, compared to 36% in the 2020 study. Their desire for jobs such as senior vice president or partner remained steady.
Women are far more likely than men to report that their career or compensation has been negatively affected by their family status—27% of women compared to only 10% of men. These numbers have increased since our 2020 study, when only 21% of women said their career or compensation had been adversely affected by family status.
CRE professionals spend 56% of their time in the office. On average, they work 46 hours per week—26 hours in the office, 15 hours remotely, and 5 hours in the field. Women are working remotely 2.5 hours more per week than men.
6% of women experienced sexual harassment in the workplace in the last year, and 32% experienced offensive, sexist behavior. Although these data points represent a decrease from 2020, such behavior remains unacceptably prevalent.
Only 23% of respondents reported that 25% or more of the professionals in their workplace are racial-ethnic minorities. However, this is a positive increase from 16% in 2020.
A total of 2,450 industry professionals across all commercial real estate sectors participated in the study between January 20 and April 30, 2025. Nearly 90% of respondents reside in the United States and 8% in Canada, 86% identified as women, and 85% identified as non-Hispanic white.
CREW Network is the leading producer of research on gender and diversity, equity, and inclusion in commercial real estate. The benchmark study was made possible by support from CREW Network Foundation and contributing underwriters ICSC, MBA, and NAIOP.