There’s still a glass ceiling and commercial real estate is still considered a “boy’s club.” As many advances have been made, many women will tell you they need to work extra hard to prove themselves and be taken seriously in this industry.

We’re on a constant mission to portray more women on the pages of our magazine, but it’s been difficult. There are only so many senior-level women in this business, and they’re in high demand. Hopefully, as this generation of executives advances, more women will reach that bar.

This responsibility isn’t solely on women’s shoulders, however; real estate companies are increasingly making efforts to be more diverse, and in the most enlightened firms, that mission included the C-suite. Frankly, I believe any business that doesn’t include both genders in high-level positions and decision-making is doing itself a huge disservice. Having a balance of opinions is critical.

It also impacts the bottom line. According to the Spectrem Group, the number of wealthy women in the US is growing at a faster rate than that of men—68% over a two-year period vs. 36%. Catalyst found that Fortune 500 companies with more female executives had a 35% higher return on equity and a 34% higher total return to shareholders. It also found that Fortune 500 firms that had at least three women boards of directors saw an average return on equity increase of at least 53%, an average return on sales increase by at least 42% and an average return on invested capital increase by at least 66%. And the Ferguson study, which looked at 164 public REITs, examined several characteristics and found that board diversity was the only factor that correlated closely to performance.

Be it different approaches to business, motivations, our nurturing nature (businesses are a lot like children, no?)—whatever the reason—having more women on board, literally and figuratively, can only be a benefit.