Frances Olson

You have likely never heard of Frances Olson, but she has had a tremendous impact on your life! Frances, now eighty-two years old, was born and raised in Regina. She grew up on Osler Street. As a young girl, she would often stand in front of a mansion-like dwelling on College Avenue and dream about what it would be like to be rich enough to own a home like that. In 1965, her husband, Ralph, lost his job at SGI in Regina. In those days, women did not work and Frances was terrified that they would lose everything. One thing Frances knew was that she loved selling things and working with people. She had worked as a teen-ager at the Regina Army-Navy store and loved the work she did. She decided she would go into realty. So, at the age of 37, she began to hunt for a job as a realtor. However, no one would hire her – because she was a woman. Women did not sell realty. Rather than let that defeat her, she began her own company: Frances Olson Realty. Remember that house on College Avenue? It became the headquarters for her new company. She became a successful realtor and woman began to contact her to ask her how to break into real estate. What could Frances do? She hired those women. Frances Olson Realty became an all female real estate organization. Frances mentored the women who worked for her, sharing her work ethics, her fashion sense and her knowledge of customer relations. She was a role model for women in the sixties who were just beginning to demand the same opportunities for themselves as their husbands had. Whether we know her story or not, Frances opened the door for woman to demand better and to lead fulfilling lives. Never forgetting the women who came before us and blazed a trail for us . . . it’s a good thing!