Every March, International Women’s Day arrives with a flurry of hashtags, panel talks and carefully curated captions. And while the intention may be good, we don't celebrate it at Brickworks. Not because we don’t value women, but because we believe in something bigger.

Having a single day to exalt women isn’t equality. In our industry, where inequality is still structurally embedded, it just feels patronising and performative. Applause instead of action. Equality doesn’t live in a calendar slot – it lives in pay structures, promotion pathways, leadership culture and daily decisions. That’s why, for us, every day is International Women’s Day.

We are a women-led business, and we are feminists. (And yes, we love men too.) We simply care a great deal about equity, respect and equal pay for everyone, all the time. Feminism is the belief in and advocacy for social, political and economic equality of the sexes. It aims to dismantle patriarchal structures, challenge limiting gender stereotypes and eliminate discrimination against women. If you agree with that, you’re a feminist too – or at the very least, someone who believes in fairness. Feminism isn’t a personality or a performance, it's a principle. And it becomes real through the choices you make along the way.

As an industry, estate agency still has so much work to do. While the narrative may be slowly shifting – and the pace can feel glacial at times – many of the underlying structures remain rooted in outdated ideals of a 'man’s world'. Savills, one of the UK’s most prominent estate agency brands, lay it out beautifully in their most recent pay gap report, but the numbers speak to a sobering reality. Savills (UK) Ltd reported a mean hourly gender pay gap of 32.74%, and a mean bonus pay gap of 73.85%. Across those two figures, the gap closed by an average of 2.9% over two years (2022-2024). When we said slowly, we meant it.

Industry wide, the gender pay gap currently sits at a mean average of 12.6%. Isolate average bonus pay and the gap jumps to 54.9%. Women make up 52% of our sector, yet the majority are in non-managerial roles, with their numbers thinning significantly at middle and senior management levels. In other words, women enter the industry in strong numbers, but their careers often falter as they climb. That isn’t a pipeline problem – it's a structural and systemic one.

And yet, feminism is sometimes treated as the uncomfortable word in the room. We’ve seen women agree with calls for change in principle but shy away from publicly aligning themselves. During our Dear Sirs campaign, we spoke to those who believed in what we stood for, but didn’t feel willing or able to put their names to it. That’s troubling. It suggests that even when women reach senior positions, the space to actively advocate for equity can still feel precarious. Representation alone isn’t enough. A woman at the top who cannot safely walk her truth is still operating within a system that resists change.

Feminism shouldn’t be feared in estate agency. It should be recognised as an important path to improving it. And not just for women, but for men and anyone that doesn’t want to conform to an archaic stereotype of masculinity in order to succeed. An industry that values only one style of leadership limits everyone within it.

Women bring extraordinary strengths to business: emotional intelligence, empathy, self-awareness, relational acuity. In an industry built on trust, negotiation and deeply personal life transitions – these are not 'soft' skills. They are commercially powerful ones. They enhance client experience, strengthen teams and drive sustainable growth. Why wouldn’t we want to actively encourage that dynamic? There is room in this industry for ambition and empathy, competitiveness and collaboration. Feminism doesn’t narrow the field. It expands it.

Women gathering to support one another is a start, but if it stops at inspiration and celebration, it misses the point. The driver must be structural change: equal pay, transparent progression, genuine flexibility, leadership accountability. Without that, we are simply decorating the status quo.

So, if we mark International Women’s Day at all, it's by continuing the work. By committing to pay equity. By refusing outdated stereotypes. By embedding equality into how we hire, lead and serve our clients. Not as lip service but as an integral part of who we are and what we do.

International Women’s Day can be a useful moment of reflection. But for us, it’s not a celebration. It’s a reminder of the standard. And then we get back to doing what we believe in – building an estate agency where equality isn’t observed once a year, but practised every single day. Three hundred and sixty-five days a year.