2024 OMBA RANKING: Which Online MBA Programs Had The Most Women In 2023?

Amy Turk, a Kelley Direct student and a Johnson and Johnson Global Franchise Marketing Associate Product Director from Warsaw, Indiana, at home with her family in 2019. Courtesy photo

In traditional, full-time MBA programs attracting more women to the ranks has been an oft-stated, (and often elusive) goal of top programs. It’s why when a premier school like The Wharton School reaches gender parity, it’s a headline worthy story.

Parity is more common in online programs, where working professionals keep their jobs, study at home, and have more flexibility to balance work, family, and schoolwork according to their schedules. Fair or not, this format helps attract more working mothers who are still more likely to shoulder the lion’s share of childcare duties.

In our seventh ranking of online MBA programs, 13 of 51 ranked schools enrolled as many or more women than in their latest cycle, the same number as last year. Overall, schools enrolled an average of 43.24% of women in their 2023 cohorts. That’s up slightly from the 42.5% women in the Class of 2022, but down from the 45.44% for the Class of 2021.

HIGHEST & LOWEST FEMALE PERCENTAGE AT ONLINE MBAs

Looking at the school-submitted data for our 2024 ranking, smaller, lower-ranked online MBAs tended to have as many or more women enrolled than their male counterparts.

The two schools with the highest percentage of women – American University (Kogod) (62.5%) and Florida International University (56%) – ranked Nos. 48 and 36 respectively. Of the 10 schools with the highest percentage of women, 8 ranked 30th or lower.

University of Michigan (Ross) (No. 4 overall) had the lowest percentage of women (24%) of any school. In fact, 6 of the 10 schools with the lowest percentage of women were ranked in the top 10 overall in the 2024 ranking.

If you think about it, the trend makes sense. Generally, but not always, the highest ranked online MBA programs in our rankings are more likely to require live virtual classrooms, in-person residencies, and on-site immersions to companies or regions. These certainly enrich the learning experience and networking, but they can be more difficult for working mothers to manage.

Programs that are 100% asynchronous, with no travel required, tend to sit in the middle to the lower part of the ranking, but also offer the most flexibility.

WOMEN IN MBAs

Women flocking to smaller online programs runs counter to the trend in traditional, residential MBA programs.

Higher-ranked traditional MBAs tend to attract more women as applicants, and therefore enroll more as students. No.1-ranked The Wharton School, for example, was the first of the M7s to achieve gender parity in their flagship MBA programs for its Class of 2023 candidates, a feat it repeated for its 2024 and 2025 classes. (See Women At The Leading U.S. & Global MBA Programs).

In our ranked online programs, the lower-ranked B-schools seem to have had no trouble drawing women applicants and enrolling them. These schools tend to have fewer GMAT requirements, are typically shorter than two-year residential programs, are much cheaper, and they offer more flexibility for working women who are also raising families – a barrier for some women to residential programs.

SCHOOLS THAT REACHED PARITY

While 13 schools reached gender parity in their online programs this year, just two top-15 programs hit the mark in our 2024 ranking: No. 8 Jack Welch Management Institute (56% women) and No. 13 Baylor University (Hankamer) at 50%. Five other top 15 programs made it to at least 40% women in their latest cohorts:

• No. 14 University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, (49.4% women)
• No. 11 Santa Clara University (Leavey) (49%)
• No. 12 University of Massachusetts at Amherst (Isenberg) (43%)
• No. 5 Carnegie Mellon University (Tepper) (41%)
• No. 2 University of Washington (Foster) (41%)

PARITY GAINS AND LOSSES

Twenty schools lost ground on the percentage of women enrolled in their cohorts compared to 25 schools last year. Reversely, 27 schools added more women in the class of 2023 or had the same percentage as the previous class.

Five schools lost 10% or more, as you can see in the chart below. On the flip side, four schools gained 10% or more women in their 2023 cohorts, led by Baylor University (Hankamer) who enrolled 20% more women than the previous class.

NEXT PAGE: Percentage of women at all 51 ranked online MBA programs.