Published: March 14, 2018
How Are Top Business Schools Promoting Women?
How to help more women advance in business school and the larger business world is a topic that deserves attention year round, but it does receive added airplay throughout the month of March, which is Women's History Month in the United States and includes the celebration of International Women’s Day globally. The reality is that the overall number of women in business school is still not close to 50/50, though many top programs and organizations such as the Forté Foundation are working to change that.
The Financial Times’ new ranking of Top MBAs for Women, released earlier this month, celebrated some of this work, although it also made clear that more is needed. According to the report, women still only account for a third of students at 100 of the top MBA programs—the same number as five years ago. And, worse yet, there’s evidence that suggests women may be experience a greater pay gap after obtaining the MBA degree. Pre-MBA, women earn 91 percent what men make, but post-MBA they earn only 86 percent, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.
With work still to be done to encourage women in business school and beyond, we want to take this opportunity to highlight what a few of the top MBA programs around the country are doing to keep moving the needle. Far from an exhaustive list of all that MBA programs are doing promote women in business, it is intended to provide just a taste of the many efforts underway.
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