Female representation on US REIT boards continues to rise

The percentage of women on the boards of directors at US real estate investment trusts has consistently risen over the past 10 years.

Women hold 399 seats on US REIT boards, representing 31.5% of the total REIT board members, according to a recent analysis by S&P Global Market Intelligence. For comparison, women represented 10.6% of board seats at the same REITs as of the end of 2014.

The analysis included REITs that currently trade on the Nasdaq, NYSE or NYSE American, excluding City Office REIT Inc. and Paramount Group Inc. which both agreed to be acquired.

On a median basis, retail REITs held a slightly higher percentage of women on their boards compared to other REIT property sectors, at 34.8%.

On the other end, women represented 25% of the boards of self-storage REITs, on a median basis. The industrial and diversified sectors followed with medians of 28.6% each.

REITs with larger market capitalizations were more likely to have a higher percentage of women on their boards of directors.

Women represented one-third of board constituents at REITs with more than $1 billion in market capitalization, on a median basis, compared to women holding a median 20.8% of board positions at REITs with market capitalizations between $500 million and $1 billion. For the smallest REITs with market capitalizations less than $500 million, women held 22.5% of board positions, on a median basis.

Twelve REITs in the analysis had at least half of their board seats occupied by women.

Three of the five board members, or 60%, at healthcare REIT CareTrust REIT Inc. are women, the largest percentage among US REITs.

Single tenant retail REIT Four Corners Property Trust and multifamily REIT Centerspace each had four of seven seats on their boards of directors occupied by women, representing 57.1%.

Women held five of the nine board positions, or 55.6%, at both data center REIT Equinix Inc. and multifamily-focused Essex Property Trust Inc.

Additionally, women held half of the seats on the boards of seven REITs: Essential Properties Realty Trust Inc., InvenTrust Properties Corp., Sila Realty Trust Inc., Whitestone REIT, Braemar Hotels & Resorts Inc., Presidio Property Trust Inc. and Wheeler REIT Inc.

On the other hand, five REITs have no women on their boards: Innovative Industrial Properties Inc., Strawberry Fields REIT Inc., Clipper Realty Inc., Medalist Diversified REIT Inc. and Power REIT.

REITs with a larger percentage of women on their boards generally posted higher total returns over three- and five-year periods compared with those with smaller percentages of women on their boards, according to Market Intelligence data. The data also showed that larger-cap REITs, which were more likely to have a higher percentage of women on their boards, outperformed their smaller-cap counterparts.