Why women auctioneers need their own division in auctioneering championships.
In the world of competitive auctioneering, are women’s voices equally heard?
Auctioneering has long been a boy’s club, but there are many talented female auctioneers across Australia who don’t compete in the industry’s Oscars of auctioneering, the Real Estate Institutes’ Australasian Auctioneering Championships
Lisa Stewart, the manager of marketing and communications at the Real Estate Institute of South Australia, is hoping to change that. Stewart has started campaigning for a Women’s Division in the Australasian Auctioneering Championships, which will next be held in Melbourne from September 1 to 3.
Stewart believes a women’s event may help encourage female auctioneers to compete, connect, collaborate and grow their visibility on the competitive auctioneering stage. “The argument against a female only competition is valid; women and men should be able to compete in the same competition and the best person win,” says Stewart. “But the pretext of equal access to the championships does not translate into reality.”
The Australasian Auctioning Championships accept female competitors who win at their state level, but Stewart says the problem is that very few female auctioneers actually compete at the state level and even fewer make it through to the open competition at the national level. “The issue is not that women can’t compete; it’s clearly that they don’t compete and we need to ask, why?” Stewart says.
Stewart cites several factors as barriers for women in the men’s competition. “Tone, pitch and volume of delivery can be very different for women,” she says. “Basic gender differences when it comes to actual bid calling may see men being favoured by the current judging criteria simply for the tenor of their voice and their ability to project. Women, through trying to get enough projection in the voice often come coming across as shouting or high-pitched and squeaky. This can easily be overcome with the use of microphones during the competition or an amendment to the scoring sheets.”
Encouraging more women to compete in auction competitions will eventually give rise to more women auctioneering champions, says Stewart. “We need to actively foster and develop the talents of female auctioneers by recognising and celebrating success,” she says. She has proposed that each state's real estate institute run a women’s division competition as part of their local competition.
“We certainly don’t want to exclude women from the open competition,” says Stewart. “We need to see this as a way to move toward the eventual goal of equality, the ultimate destination is place where gender becomes irrelevant. We’re just not there quite yet.”