It is no secret that commercial real estate is a male-dominated industry. Go to any conference or trade show, and it is obvious how few women of the attendees are women. But things have been changing in the last few years. Fortunately, a number of women have been appointed to head large real estate organizations. Unfortunately, these appointments have often come after high-profile sexual harassment claims. Despite the recent appointments and the growing number of women working in commercial real estate, the industry (particularly brokerage) is still dealing with what is being called a toxic “boys club” working environment. A new round of allegations is again pushing the industry to change.

The most recent sexual harassment claim has been filed against JLL by a former employee, Paige Jaffe. She claimed that while she worked for the company, she repeatedly faced discrimination and “constant gender-directed comments from other brokers.’ These lawsuits are always complicated, but this one has some extra baggage as it came in response to a lawsuit filed by JLL alleging that Jaffe and another former employee had breached their employment contract and theft of confidential company data. JLL has said that they will fight the suit, but the focus of their short statement was about the employment and data theft lawsuit: “We plan to defend those claims vigorously while we continue to pursue repayment of the amounts we are owed and the return of our confidential and proprietary information.”

JLL is by no means the only large real estate organization that has been accused of not doing enough to stop sexual harassment. The most high-profile recent case was the accusations against the President of the National Association of Realtors, who was soon after replaced by Tracy Kasper. Five women who worked for brokerage eXp sued the company last year after they were allegedly drugged and rapped after a company party, claiming that the company had ignored complaints about predatory behavior for years. In 2020, Carrie Bobb, a CBRE broker, was forced to arbitrate when she attempted to sue her employer after an alleged rape at an ICSC conference. The case went on to inspire federal legislators to create “Carrie’s Law” which voids arbitration clauses in cases involving sexual misconduct. In 2018, Marcus & Millichap was hit with a gender discrimination lawsuit for allegedly firing an employee after she complained of sexual harassment.

The list goes on. The commercial real estate industry is going to have to figure out a better way to protect its employees from sexual harassment. Many of the large brokerages have come out with ethical standards and reporting hotlines to help stop these instances from repeating. But in the end, the culture of the companies will have to change. As more women get promoted to leadership positions and more examples are made of bad actors, things will start to change. None of that will happen, though, if the industry does not admit that it has a problem.

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