WOMEN HAVE COME A LONG WAY IN THIS industry over the past decade or two. FORUMs sister website, GlobeSt.com, reported on a recent study by Ferguson Partners that found REITs with at least one woman on their boards have had significantly higher shareholder returns than those without—2.6% higher over a three-year period and 3.6% over five years.

That's great news for women in this business. It also bodes well—relatively speaking—that 56% of REITs have a female board member, whereas just 11% of Fortune 500 companies do. There were advances broadly, though; in this year's Fortune 500 ranking, 18 firms had female CEOs, up from 12 in 2011 and a mere seven in 2002. Still, that's just 3.6% of the entire list. In the finance and insurance industries in particular, women make up 57.6% of the labor force, but only 18.4% of executive office positions and 3.7% of CEO posts.

Nationally, women still earn less than men, and the gap's been closing by a mere half a cent annually since the Equal Pay Act was passed in 1963. Theoreticcally, women would have to work 4.5 extra months per year to match men's pay. For women of color, the gap widens even more.