In the Room, but Not in the Deal

Why Women in CRE Are Not Making the Leap from Operator to Investor 

In the United States, women make up nearly 38% of the commercial real estate workforce ^[1] yet they own just 2% of commercial properties.^[2] That gap is worth examining. Women are closing deals, managing portfolios, underwriting acquisitions, and leading real estate firms. When women do invest, the data proves that women outperform men by nearly 40 basis points annually, according to a 2021 Fidelity study tracking 5.2 million accounts over a decade.^[3] The capability, potential and knowledge is there.  This raises the obvious question:  What is keeping women from crossing over to the ownership side in commercial real estate?

The Deeper Barrier

Structural barriers around networks, capital, and sponsorship are well-documented. However, there is a less-discussed factor at play: the internal tension many women carry around investment risk, shaped by the careers they have constructed.

Many women in CRE have built careers being rewarded for steadiness, preparation, and risk-awareness. They become exceptional strategists, operators, analysts, and asset managers, trained to protect capital before ever being encouraged to deploy it. Ownership requires something different. At some point, investing demands action before certainty arrives. The more experienced and informed many women become, the harder that leap can feel. It’s not due to a lack of ambition or capability; it’s because they understand the consequences more acutely than most.

There is also a reputational dimension. Commercial real estate tends to reward different traits in men and women. Men are frequently encouraged for conviction and bold risk-taking. Women are more often rewarded for precision and reliability and are expected to arrive already fully credible. A failed investment can feel like more than a financial loss. It can feel like proof they were not ready. Investing inherently requires tolerating uncertainty publicly, and that weight on women matters more than the industry often acknowledges.

The Structural Gaps That Compound It

This internal tension isn’t the full story behind women hesitating to invest in commercial real estate. The 2025 CREW Network Benchmark Study found women in the industry still earn 13% less than men in total compensation and 35% less in commissions, bonuses, and profit-sharing.^[5] That is not just a compensation difference. It is a difference in the ability to deploy future investment capital. Sponsorship gaps deepen the problem further: women receive significantly less sponsorship than male peers at equivalent performance levels,^[4] and the 2025 CREW study found, for the fourth consecutive study, that an internal senior executive mentor remains the single most important factor women cite for their own future success.^[5] Women are lacking access to knowledgeable mentors and investors to show them the ropes on investment strategy.

What Shifts the Mindset

The industry's instinct is often to offer confidence-building programs. However, confidence may not be the core issue: permission is. Women need environments where investment risk is normalized rather than penalized, and where one failed deal does not define their credibility forever.

What is actually moving the needle: structured co-investment opportunities that lower the barrier to first deals; women-led investment groups that normalize peer-to-peer risk-taking; and visible role models of women who have invested, stumbled, and continued building.^[6] An estimated $40 trillion in wealth is expected to transfer into women's hands over the next two decades.^[7] The firms that normalize women as principals, not just operators, will be best positioned when that capital moves.

A Momentum Worth Noting

NAR data shows women made up 32% of new real estate investors in 2024, up from 25% just two years earlier —evidence that women have gained some momentum as real estate investors in recent years.^[8] The appetite for ownership is there, growing most rapidly in residential investing where entry points are lower. What the industry still owes its women professionals is a culture where they are free to build, fail, learn, and build again. Increasingly and excitingly, women aren't waiting. They are forming their own networks, launching their own funds, and creating new pathways into commercial real estate on their own terms.

References 

[1]  CREW Network & MIT Center for Real Estate. (2025). Benchmark Study: Workplace Data and Trends in Commercial Real Estate. https://crewnetwork.org/resources/gender-diversity-research/benchmark-studies/workplace-data-and-trends-in-commercial-real-estate-2025

[2]  Halm, M., as cited in KeyCrew. (2025). Women Hold Just 2% of Commercial Real Estate Ownership Widening Gender Gap, Report Reveals. https://keycrew.co/journal/only-2-of-commercial-real-estate-owners-are-women-industry-leader-reports-stark-gender-gap/

[3]  Fidelity Investments. (2021). Women and Investing Study. As reported in multiple financial publications including The Motley Fool (https://www.fool.com/research/women-in-investing-statistics/) and Warwick Business School research.

[4]  Carson Group / LeanIn.Org. (2024). Elevating Women in the Workplace: Sponsorship vs. Mentorship. https://www.carsongroup.com/insights/blog/elevating-women-in-the-workplace-sponsorship-vs-mentorship

[5]  CREW Network & MIT Center for Real Estate. (2025). Benchmark Study: Workplace Data and Trends in Commercial Real Estate. https://crewnetwork.org/resources/gender-diversity-research/benchmark-studies/workplace-data-and-trends-in-commercial-real-estate-2025

[6]  Founders Forum Group. (2025). Women in VC & Startup Funding: Statistics & Trends. https://ff.co/women-funding-statistics-2025

[7]  Real Estate InvestHER / InvestHER Fund. (2024). The InvestHER Fund: Women-Led Real Estate Investments. https://therealestateinvesther.com/invest

[8]  National Association of Realtors (NAR), as cited in Women's Real Estate Investors Network. (2025). 5 Surprising Statistics About Women in Real Estate. https://wrein.com/blog/5-surprising-statistics-about-women-in-real-estate/