A Forbes article makes an alarming finding: one in three women with MBAs are not working full-time, compared to one in twenty men. Although many of these women desire to return to the workforce full-time, they are unable to do so without major career difficulties. Why? Perhaps, it’s because business schools aren’t structuring their MBA programs to fit the needs of its women students. As the Forbes article points out, Business schools neglect to address the varying life situations students will encounter as they go out into the work force; a significant disadvantage to producing “principled leaders.”
“The last frontier for women’s advancement at work is understanding how men and women re-define roles at home,” Anne Weisberg, the head of Diversity at global financial management firm Blackrock, said to Forbes. Business schools tend to prepare students only as future employees without taking life changes into account. As a result, many women in MBA programs feel that their family and work lives must be overcome, and not managed. Weisberg believes that if business schools were to offer classes on gender and life issues, it would save firms from losing strong employees and stop them from paying heavy transition costs.
In addition, when women graduate and reach the workplace, a study by Leipzig Professor Anne Huff finds that women often volunteer for “maintenance-level roles” like note-taking for example, that may lead to little recognition of their work. But it’s not just the lack of diverse and innovative classes that make business school less effective for women students. MIT Sloan Dean David Schmittlein observes that in top 10 MBA programs, women tend to be younger than men.
“This may lead to a negative perception of their experience in the business school environment,” he said to Forbes.
Schmittlein also notes that research proves women aren’t called on in class as much as men. Even when they are, their peers are less likely to offer feedback to their comments.
Women business students also face a lack of role models. Schmittlein notes that the number of women facultry members is small in business school faculties across the country.
With so many factors at play that hinder women’s success, one thing is clear: in order to better prepare women students, business schools need to restructure their courses and better analyze and address the situations women professionals will face.

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