Gender Representation in the Real Estate Industry

Purpose - This study contributes to our understanding of gender and the real estate industry. The purpose is to examine how annual reports contribute to the gendering of the real estate industry in Sweden. To fulfill the purpose, representations of gender in financial annual reports in the real estate industry are analyzed. Design/methodology/approach - A critical theoretical perspective is applied. The empirical data of the study consists of representations of gender in photographs in financial annual reports. The sample consists of annual reports of real estate companies with different business concepts. The annual reports are seen as social constructs, that is to say they are seen as human products expressing corporate identities. Findings - Having analyzed the reports it becomes clear that the different organizations seem to show different awareness regarding representations of gender in the photographs; thereby different corporate identities are expressed, partly due to different business concepts. There are stereotypical images of women and men that serve to maintain the hierarchical gender order in the industry. The token position -being one of the few women in the real estate industry is also used. Women are underrepresented in the corporate identity and the heterosexuality is also preserved.Originality/value - This kind of study is not previous made in the real estate industry.