NorthWest Illinois Alliance of Realtors installs first all-women executive board

ROCKFORD, Ill. (WIFR) - A once male-dominated business proves its future is female. The NorthWest Illinois Alliance of Realtors (NWIAR) installs its first all-women executive board in more than a century of operation.

Women have a history in real estate, but not a very long one. Before the 1970s, women weren’t allowed to finance purchases on a house. Now, women have achieved high levels in real estate and the climb isn’t over.

The fight for gender equity in the workplace remains challenging, but former NWIAR President Alisa Patterson says the tides are beginning to turn.

“Real estate is changing, technology, all of those things,” said Patterson. “These women have allowed us now to be able to break those barriers and to have these legacies and have these wonderful things for our families.”

The NWIAR makes significant strides to achieve this, creating an executive board of only women. Natalie Mulhall was recently elected to oversee the board.

“I work with a lot of amazing, smart women, and there’s a lot of us in this industry,” said Mulhall. “They’re the ones who have kind of paved the way for me and I think it’s kind of common place in our industry that women can certainly get the job done just as well as a man.”

Data collected from Bankrate.com reveals 57% of all real estate brokers and agents are women. Ginger Sreenan says very few industry sectors can justify that, crediting NWIAR first woman president, Marian Schwabb.

“I think that let down the guard of some of the guys that felt, ‘Well, maybe they can do this’,” said Sreenan. “To have these ladies, like, moving up in the chairs, I couldn’t be more excited about it.”

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