Women are usually in the minority at full-time MBA programs, but some schools are making strides in closing the gender gap.
The Forte Foundation — a nonprofit that supports women in MBA programs and as business leaders — announced this month that 36 U.S. member schools have an enrollment of 36.2 percent on average of women for fall of 2015. In 2011, the average was 32.3 percent.
“We’re moving forward,” says Elissa Sangster, executive director of Forte Foundation, which is partnered with 46 schools worldwide. “Fifty-fifty is the goal.”
Twelve of the foundation’s U.S. schools have an enrollment of women that’s 40 percent or more, including The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
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Forte’s data are in line with trends seen more broadly across business schools. In a report from the Graduate Management Admission Council, which collects data from hundreds of business schools, 51 percent of full-time, two-year MBA programs saw an increase in women applicants in 2015 when compared with 2014.
Because few MBA programs have an equal representation of women and men, a number of organizations are actively working to support women MBA applicants, students and graduates.
When Sangeeta Chakraborty graduated from the University of California– Berkeley’s Haas School of Business in 2006 and tried to find networking opportunities and business professionals, especially women, with an interest in South Asia, it wasn’t easy.
“I couldn’t find anything,” says Chakraborty, who now works as the chief customer officer for Ayasdi, a California-based company that analyzes data for various businesses.
She co-founded the South Asian MBA Association and started its Women’s Leadership Network, which helps women with professional relationship building.
She encourages prospective MBA applicants who are women to think long term. “Getting admission is only half the work,” she says. Making it through an MBA program requires careful planning and an ability to balance the important things in your life, she says.
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National Association of Women MBAs also brings women together to support each other in reaching professional goals and has more than 60 student chapters, in addition to professional chapters. Beyond the conferences, webinars and other events it regularly hosts, the association has some new programs to help women excel in business.
“We are launching a mentorship program,” says Virginia Ware Myers, executive director. “We’re also going to be launching a speakers network.”
The mentorship program should roll out in the next two months, Myers says. The speakers network, set to launch by March, will be a platform to showcase speakers who are connected to the association.
Many schools that partner with women MBA associations also have programs and clubs to support women in business.
Forte Foundation’s schools that have seen an improvement in enrollment have been working on gender equality for over a decade, Sangster says.
At Dartmouth University’s Tuck School of Business, a founding member of the Forte Foundation and one of the schools that has more than 40 percent women in its full-time MBA program, female students and applicants are supported by the Tuck Women in Business student group, says Sally Jaeger, assistant dean and director of the MBA program.
Group members call admitted female students to welcome them to Tuck and have coffee with prospective women applicants. Another arm of the club, the Initiative for Women, takes a more research-oriented approach to overcoming gender inequality in the classroom, Jaeger says.
Making a concerted effort to recruit women and to support women as they go from applicant to student may be part of the reason for Tuck’s success. The MBA class of 2016 is 32 percent women. The class that started this year is at 42 percent.
“Outreach is huge for us,” Jaeger says.
Forte has several programs that help women MBA students and applicants get ahead in business professions. The foundation’s MBALaunch program, in its third year, helps women prepare for business school applications over the course of 10 months. Participants are placed into peer groups and get help with application essays, GMAT preparation and more, Sangster says.
“Having that peer group and that support really helps them with identifying the different schools they might apply to,” she says.
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This fall it launched Rising Stars, which supports undergraduate women from all academic backgrounds and has 10 schools in its pilot program. Participants must complete activities — which might include interviewing a professional in a career that interests them, for example — and receive rewards for their work, Sangster says.
“One of the key things is really building that pipeline,” Sangster says. The goal, she says, is “to have them be business ready and employable at graduation.”
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How MBA Organizations Push for Gender Diversity originally appeared on usnews.com