The $400K Gender Pay Gap For Biz Masters

GENDER GAP IN ALUMNI EARNINGS WIDENS OVER 20 YEARS

A SET OF RECOMMENDATIONS TO INSURE GREATER PROGRESS

Researcher Bruggemann points out that business schools constitute one of the main talent pipelines for future business leaders. Closing the gender gap in MBA enrollments particularly, would go a long way to expanding the pipeline of women prepared to step into leadership roles in business.

“Neither an MBA, nor graduate management education itself, is a prerequisite for access to the upper reaches of corporate governance,” according to the report. “But qualifications matter in an increasingly competitive global economy, and an MBA degree is a highly valued credential—the “gold standard”— for organizations seeking to hire top business talent to fill their ranks. More than 40 percent of CEOs of both genders in the top 100 companies have MBAs according to the Forte Foundation. So it would seem that, for women especially, an MBA is a natural pathway to the ranks of corporate leadership.”

The authors of the report believe that targeting gender diversity in the classroom will go a long way to improving the gender dynamics in business and facilitating diverse leadership models. “Business schools recognize that they play a critical role in ensuring their students are trained for the future business environments in which they will lead,” the report states. “To that end, deans from 47 U.S. business schools signed on to a set of 25 best practices for schools to lead in expanding opportunities for women in business. This event was an outcome of a prior meeting with senior U.S. White House officials to discuss the challenges business schools face in preparing their students for the future workplace.”

Best practices guidelines, which have more than 50 schools as signatories, cluster around four main goals:

• Expand access to business school and business careers by pursuing outreach and engagement to build the pipeline of women interested in business careers;

• Build a business school environment that prepares students for tomorrow’s diverse workforce;

• Ensure career services extend beyond the needs of traditional students to include recent graduates and alumni as well; and

• Business schools themselves need to set an example of a workplace that supports diverse faculty and staff by investigating and addressing gender gaps in faculty hiring, promotion, and pay and ensuring diverse leadership positions within the school, including on advisory boards.

Specific academic goals that directly address the obstacles and gender barriers women face include:

• Modernizing the curriculum to educate students on how to lead an organization that best utilizes the diverse talents of employees, including those trying to balance work and family;

• Making case studies more representative of diverse leaders solving a wide range of problems;

• Facilitating mentoring and sponsorship opportunities for women;

• Ensuring that a diverse group of leaders and leadership styles are brought into the classroom;

• Partnering with companies to help women get back on the fast track from interrupted careers;

• Recognizing life-cycle challenges women face in trying to pursue an MBA, career, and family and consider flexible approaches to the timing of education to better meet their needs; and

• Targeting financial support to ensure business school is a viable investment for individuals with a low earnings