Florida Women’s Council of Realtors President Pamela Banks was the keynote speaker at the group’s District One conference in June.
The idea for a women’s council, she said, came in 1924 during a train ride returning from the national real estate convention in Washington, D.C.
A group of women from California were brainstorming about how to form a women’s division. Fourteen years later, their idea became a reality.
The country had lived through the Great Depression, and women were entering the workforce in droves to help their families. But women weren’t paid the same or treated the same.
As women gained success, they also gained independence. It was the time of Amelia Earhart; Judy Garland; Frances Perkins, the first woman in the cabinet; and Jane Addams, the first female Nobel Prize winner.
Aware of the impact women were going to have on real estate, the president of the National Association of Realtors (at that time it was The National Association of Real Estate Brokers) in 1938 authorized the formation of a women’s council.
“These are the original trailblazers — men and women who were not afraid to stand up and stand out,” Banks said.
At its inception the Women’s Council of Realtors was made of up 37 members in nine states.
Today it is the 12th-largest women’s professional organization in the nation, with over 11,000 members. Florida is currently the largest state chapter.