Thirty years ago, women began enrolling in business school in record numbers. They were tired of receiving lower pay than men for comparable efforts and ready to embrace the idea that business bears no gender. It quickly became evident that the male and female perspectives are equally vital to business; industry boomed and the gender conundrum appeared solved.
Fast forward to today. As female MBA enrollment figures stand virtually still at 30 percent, analysts begin to wonder what's keeping women from achieving their full potential as business leaders?
B-school vs. Babies
One major cause for hesitation is the age-old biological clock. Since most business careers require work experience, more students hold off on earning an MBA until into their late 20s. Suddenly the “ideal” child-bearing years coincide awkwardly with graduation and time-sensitive job offers.
While it's technically possible to have both a family and a career, for many women it amounts to long hours in the boardroom at the expense of time with family—or at least that's how it can feel.
Many business women, too, are fooled by the long-standing misconception that business is a cutthroat industry where only the strong (aka male) survive. The truth is that those skills that affect the bottom line—attention to detail, keen instinct, level decision-making—are not gender-specific. As new data show, today's MBA world is full of programs that emphasize smart strategy over brute force.
Wanted: A Few Good Women
Because so many b-schools want to increase female enrollment, now is a great time to be a woman entering an MBA program. Many MBA recruitment initiatives highlight the increased salaries, career flexibility, and professional credibility enjoyed by female grads.
Forward-thinking corporations and graduate business programs go even further in recruiting females by providing on- and off-campus resources for students with families. Most programs offer institutional childcare, in many cases right on campus or in the form of valuable referrals to area schools and daycare centers. MBA students can take advantage of health care, job placement, technology, transportation, and countless student initiatives while studying on campus. Meanwhile, the recent telecommunications boom ensures a future where online and distance learning will provide continually viable options for students with obligations at home.
Welcoming Back Mothers
Another interesting trend is currently taking place in some of the world's most notable business programs. Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth—as well as Harvard and Pepperdine, to name a few—are bridging the distance between parenthood and business leadership by offering individual “buffer-style” courses targeted specifically at women who have left the workforce for an extended period of time. These specialized classes help reintegrate business-minded moms to the fast-paced and constantly changing world of business. Through such initiatives, women gain not only the professional knowledge that they need but also the confidence that they are often lacking, a crucial commodity in today's highly competitive business world.
By Hannah Roberts, staff writer
