GLENDALE, CA—Women are more involved in the service aspects ofcommercial real estate and asset and propertymanagement, but they're still not the deal decision-makers,Andrea S. Glickman, area vice chairman andmanaging director-practice leader of Arthur J. Gallagher& Co., tells GlobeSt.com exclusively. A RealEstate Forum Womanof Influence for 2014, Glickman spoke with uscandidly about her views on women in commercial real estate and thebarrier they're still not able to cross.

GlobeSt.com: What do you feel is lacking for womenin commercial real estate?

Glickman: When I started in thebusiness 31 years ago, it was very Darwinian, and unfortunatelythat was back in the day when there was the one woman in the room,and the people sitting around her felt good about themselvesbecause at least they had that one woman in the room. But theevolution of commercial real estate is interesting because, if youthink about the people in the “support” industries—law, accounting,insurance—I would bet that easily 50% are women, and the mostsuccessful commercial real estate leasing peopleare also women. What is lacking are women in risk-taking anddeal-making roles. So, asset management, property management andnon-risk-taking positions are now becoming very dominated by women,but there's still a real dearth of women in risk-taking roles inCRE.