The awards have been created to honour the people, teams and firms empowering women in the property workplace and recognise the role models inspiring the next generation.
Finalists include individuals and teams who have helped to tackle gender imbalance and breakdown barriers in the workplace.
The winners of the 24 categories will be announced at a black-tie awards ceremony at Grosvenor House hotel in London on 12 October.
Among those to make the shortlist is Caroline Main, executive director and head of retail at property management company MAPP. Main has been shortlisted for Leader of the Year – Commercial for her commitment over a 20-year period to changing the gender imbalance in the industry and for playing an integral role in MAPP’s equity, diversity and inclusion initiatives.
Others to make the inaugural shortlist include Polly Robertson, director of product and marketing at office space provider Kontor, who has been shortlisted for Unsung Hero – Commercial for her work driving the Kontor team to innovate and evolve the brand.
Finalists also include Monica Marcu, an asset manager at Argent, who has been shortlisted for Mentor of the Year. Marcu grew up in Romania during the Ceaușescu dictatorship before moving to the UK and forging a successful career in the property sector. Since joining Argent in 2017, she has gone on to support and mentor individuals both inside and outside of the organisation, especially helping women from similar backgrounds to herself.
Firms shortlisted for their company-wide efforts to improve diversity and inclusion include Puma Property Finance and Freeths, which are in the running for the EDI Programme of the Year award; and Clockwise and Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, which have been shortlisted for Mental Health and Wellbeing Initiative of the Year.
Irwin Mitchell, JLL and Real Estate Balance are among the finalists in the category of EDI Team of the Year.
Stephanie Denton, head of content at Property Week, said: “Congratulations to everyone who made this year’s shortlist. It is clear from the entries there are so many inspirational women working in the sector and fantastic initiatives under way tackling gender imbalance and EDI. We look forward to seeing the finalists at the awards evening in October.”
Inspiring Diversity in Property campaign
The Inspiring Women in Property Awards is part of Property Week’s Inspiring Diversity in Property campaign that aims to flag best practice, highlight networks and encourage everyone to take a small step to encourage diversity in the sector. As part of the campaign, Property Week has launched two pledges for the sector to sign up to.
The first pledge asks companies to strive to: attract, develop and promote a more diverse and inclusive workforce across all levels of seniority; close gender and ethnicity pay gaps; foster a culture of diversity and inclusiveness and create an environment where all people and communities feel empowered; champion and recognise the achievements of employees across all protected workplace characteristics; and set annual equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) objectives and transparently publish progress.
In light of the PW’s survey’s discovery that 81% of respondents felt personally empowered to have an impact on diversity, an individual pledge was also launched, which asks people to commit to make a small change that is personal to them to increase diversity at home, at work or in society.
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