CHICAGO-Commercial real estate may be viewed in the public eye as a wholly male-dominated industry, but female executives in the REIT space are beginning to catch up. A new study from consulting firm Ferguson Partners Ltd. shows that real estate investment trusts that have had a female board member for more than three years have seen materially higher returns than their counterparts.

Data from Ferguson revealed that firms with at least one female on their board garnered higher shareholder return growth rates, specifically, 2.6% higher than peers over a three-year horizon; 3.6% higher than peers over a five-year period; and 3.4% higher than peers over a 10-year horizon.

William J. Ferguson, chairman and CEO of Ferguson Partners Ltd., tells GlobeSt.com that these data are a reflection of boards being more ‘enlightened.’ “When you look at the REIT world in particular, there are certain asset classes that are very consumer-driven, such as multifamily, such as retail,” he says. “You could even look at hospitality, and in some of those sectors, their workforce is quite large and quite diverse. When you think about the businesses that those REITs do in particular, when you are selling to consumers in a highly diverse workforce, it makes a lot of sense to have women on the board, simply because women are obviously part of any key consumer decision that is made, and when you are managing a very diverse workforce, having people on the board who understand some of those diversity issues are incredibly important.”