According to a recent analysis commissioned by The Wall Street Journal, of the 67 companies in the Standard & Poor's 1500 Index with female CEOs, 54% have at least three women in the boardroom compared to 15% of companies with men as CEOs.

According to the same article, large-cap companies with three or more female directors achieved significantly better financial results than those with none between 2004 and 2008, according to a 2011 study by Catalyst, a nonprofit research group. Recent German and Australian studies also found positive financial impact from gender-diverse boards.

The bottom line is that women are under-represented on public boards and it appears that corporate performance is suffering. These statistics are unfortunate, but the good news is that we are observing that there is a significant trend to address diversity on public boards. Better yet, within the REIT sector, the vast majority of the board searches that we are engaged to manage have diversity front and center in the recruiting process.