Lesley Anton has traded life as a corporate high-flyer for showing open homes on Sydney's upper north shore, and she couldn't be happier.
"I wanted a career where I could use my skills and experience and have more control over my future, feel valued and love what I do," she says. "I felt real estate would offer that."
Her career change at the age of 50 puts her right on trend as residential real estate is the fastest growth sector for Australian women.
That's according to the inaugural Financy Women's Index, a report on women's economic progress in Australia published exclusively by Fairfax for International Women's Day.
The index, powered by Data Digger, aims to publish quarterly to make sense of the large swathes of often repetitive and conflicting reports around women's pay and career choices. It revealed an overall improvement in gender workplace equality in 2016.
AMP Capital chief economist Dr Shane Oliver says the index is a "huge leap forward".
"The key is that it takes a range of indicators and combines them into one useful benchmark," Oliver says. "Too often we hear so many different stats and it is very hard to piece them altogether.
"It will be immensely useful in the years ahead to get an idea of how well women are doing in the workforce and also in comparison to men."
In the 12 months to December 2016, the Financy Women's Index improved 4.1 points to 106.2 points, as the number of women occupying corporate board positions rose and the disparity between average earnings fell to its lowest in five years.
For the first time, the ASX top 20 companies have surpassed a key 30 per cent target for women on boards in 2016, compared with 25 per cent 12 months earlier.
"The fact that it is happening at the top end of town is really good," says Urbis chief economist Nicki Hutley???.
"Once you see it there then it should start to filter down more. But I think more broadly ??? smaller companies really need to do more."
The improvement offset flat growth in the number of women working full-time, as well as a moderation in the female participation rate, and a 2 percentage point widening of the superannuation gap.
The average superannuation balance of women, as measured across all life stages, is 30 per cent less than the average male balance.
Over a five year period, full-time employment growth for women has been moderate and has grown from 2.78 million working females in 2011 to 2.95 million as of December 2016.
The number of men working full time has gone from 5.12 million to 5.2 million over the same period.
This suggests that despite less women being in full-time work, they are still taking on this type of work at a faster rate than men.
"It's certainly surprising that's there not more women in full-time work," says Oliver.
"Whether it's about choice or lack of jobs, or whether it's about some covert or overt discrimination, that's debatable.
"I suspect the fall may have something to do with the overall retirement of the baby boomers, but it could also be cyclical with women giving up looking for work."
Despite a tendency for more women to participate in industries with lower salaries, that appears to be slowly changing.
Female enrolments in courses such as information technology have grown 12 per cent on average each year for the past five years, almost on par with the 13 per cent average annual increase for men.
More women are choosing to study management and commerce courses as well and at a faster pace than men.
The real estate, rental and hiring sector is another growth sector, with average quarterly growth of 2 per cent in the participation of women over the past five years, compared with 0.1 per cent growth among men.
For Anton, who had worked as a marketing executive on a six-figure salary for Accenture and then toyed with a move into fashion retail, the decision to enter real estate was partly prompted by fears of age discrimination in her former career in marketing. She recognised that digital marketing was moving at such a rapid pace that she would always be feeling the pressure to prove herself all over again and keep up with younger "digital natives".
"If I was in a marketing role at say $150,000 a year, I can't help but think, in three years time, and another three years older, how much more employable will I be perceived as then?" Anton says.
"I enjoy working. In real estate I can continue to work hard without worrying about hitting that three-year window.
"My career skills, together with my experience and maturity is valued in a different way in this industry, by both clients and colleagues."
Anton, who works at Ray White Upper North Shore, feels she is starting to gain momentum with listings and on track to move to commission-only, which will give her the potential to replicate her previous salary.
Anton is among the thousands of older Australians having to reskill and rethink how an increasingly digitised workplace will affect their futures.
The Women's Index aggregates available statistical data from what women are studying, to where they work, how much they earn, and to what top-level positions they occupy.
Analysis of corporate Australia is where the greatest overall change can be seen with a rise of 6percentage points to 31 per cent in 2016, from 25 per cent in 2015, in the number of overall women occupying board positions in top 20 companies listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX).
This data is based on the top 20 ASX companies by market capitalisation as of March 2017.
These companies, which include Commonwealth Bank, Telstra and Wesfarmers, are well on their way to meeting or exceeding gender diversity targets set by the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Bianca Hartge-Hazelman is the editor of women's money magazine Financy.com.au.
