Sunday, March 8th is International Women’s Day — observed across the globe. And in the United States, Australia, and Germany, the entire month of March is recognised as Women’s History Month: a dedicated season to honour the women who shaped our world, our industries, and our future. Here in Canada, where Maid In Luxury calls home, Women’s History Month is officially observed in October. But when the world pauses on March 8th to acknowledge what women have built — and continues that conversation for the rest of the month — we pause with it. Wholeheartedly. Because the history of women in this industry does not belong to one country or one calendar. It belongs to all of us. So for the entirety of March, we are dedicating this space to the women who built, led, and refused to be overlooked in the world of luxury, property, and hospitality. This is our world. And the women who shaped it deserve to be named.
They did not wait for permission. They built while the door was still closed — and then they held it open for the rest of us.
A History Worth Knowing
In 1903, Elizabeth J. McCormick became the first woman to earn a real estate licence in the United States — at a time when the entire industry was designed to exclude her. Seven years later, in 1910, Corinne Simpson became the first woman to join the National Association of Realtors, breaking into an institution that had been founded, literally, as a brotherhood. By 1956, women were leading national councils within that same organisation. By 1989, Shirley Wiseman had become the first female president of the National Association of Home Builders. What these women share is not just ambition. It is the particular kind of courage required to walk into a room that was not built for you — and remake it entirely.
Today, 62% of all REALTORS in North America are women. Women control approximately 40% of global wealth. And female-led luxury properties are consistently outperforming their counterparts on guest satisfaction, repeat booking rates, and brand loyalty. This did not happen by accident. It happened because of the women who refused to accept the room they were given and built a better one.
This Month’s Spotlight: Ebby Halliday – The First Lady of Real Estate
If there is one woman whose story belongs in every conversation about women and luxury property, it is Ebby Halliday. Born in 1911 in Leslie, Arkansas, Ebby grew up working — selling door to door at the age of eight to help her family survive the Depression. She put herself through school. She moved to Dallas. She opened a hat boutique with her own savings and built it into a neighbourhood institution.
Then, in 1945, a client — a Texas oilman named Clint Murchison — came to her with a challenge. He had fifty-two homes built from an unconventional material that nobody wanted to buy. He told her: “If you can sell my wife these crazy hats, maybe you can sell my crazy houses.” Ebby sold her hat business and got to work. She staged each home — using curtains, rugs, and furniture — to help buyers see the life they could live inside them. She sold all fifty-two in nine months. And then she opened Ebby Halliday Realtors.
She did not wait for the industry to accept her. She simply outperformed it, decade after decade, until they had no choice but to call her its First Lady.
What Ebby built over the next seven decades is extraordinary by any measure. Her firm grew to thirty offices and over 1,500 agents. She expanded into luxury property sales, acquiring high-end brokerages and setting new standards for what a real estate company could be. She became the first female recipient of multiple industry awards, served as president of the Women’s Council of the National Association of Realtors, and was inducted into the Texas Business Hall of Fame. She was named honorary chair of the NAR’s 100th Anniversary Gala — at the age of ninety-seven.
When she passed in 2015 at the age of 104, she had never retired. And she left her company — not to family, not to investors — but to her employees.
Her philosophy was simple and it is worth writing down: “Make people feel that you are interested in them. Make them feel special. Make it real.” That is not just a business strategy. That is a luxury standard. And it is the same standard Maid In Luxury has been built upon.
Her Legacy Lives In This Work
At Maid In Luxury, we stand in a lineage of women who built something real in spaces that were not designed to hold them. Women who understood, long before the industry caught up, that luxury is not about price — it is about how you make people feel. That the most powerful thing a brand can offer is not a beautiful room, but the certainty that someone truly cares.
This Women’s Month, we honour Ebby Halliday and every woman who has poured her standard, her vision, and her refusal to settle into this industry. We honour the women managing properties, leading teams, and serving guests with the kind of excellence that does not ask for recognition — it simply delivers. And we acknowledge, with gratitude, that we are here because they were there first.
Celebrate Women’s Month by investing in a brand built by a woman, for excellence. Connect with Maid In Luxury and learn how our community-rooted, women-led approach is raising the standard for luxury property management — one property at a time.
