As a reporter and an editor here at GlobeSt.com, I get dozens (if not hundreds) of press releases a day about deals, financial transactions and the state of the commercial real estate market. But on a personal level, there was one particular study that caught my eye as a woman working in the CRE business.

A new report 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. The study 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., told me that 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.”