WOMEN STILL HALF AS LIKELY AS MEN TO BE MBA - SO WHAT?
<a href="../99/01/wommba.txt">\doc\web\99\01\wommba.txt</a>


Date forwarded: 	Wed, 13 Jan 1999 12:38:20 -0500 (EST)
Date sent:      	Wed, 13 Jan 1999 12:46:47 -0500
From:           	Gavan Tredoux <gavan@cycad.com>
To:             	upstream-list@cycad.com
Subject:        	[Upstream] Sex and Business Schools
Forwarded by:   	upstream-list@cycad.com
Send reply to:  	upstream-list@cycad.com


Contrarian January 12, 1999
 Business Schools Under Attack
 The gender police have discovered a new disparity between men and women
and have now
 flooded the nation with slick materials sounding the alarm.  Here's the
hot new issue:
 more men than women enroll in business school.  The nation is expected to
treat this
 as an emergency.  On one level, however, the disparity hawks have it
right.  
         Despite a nationwide recruitment campaign and a huge jump in the
number of women
 pursing MBAs, business schools still have not achieved parity. 
According to the
 National Center for Educational Statistics, although the differences
narrowed between
 1971 and the mid-1980s, by 1994 males were still twice as likely as
females to earn a
 master's degree in business management.  
         In recent years, women's enrollment in MBA programs has
plateaued at about 30
 percent-a tremendous difference from 3 percent in 1970, but still not
total parity
 with men.  Now an ongoing study by Catalyst, an influential research
organization
 cooperating with the University of Michigan, will study the gap and
seek ways to
 attract more females.  The study, underwritten by corporations, will
include the
 former students' recommendations for enhancing a business school
education for women,
 and ideas for retaining high-potential women on the job.
         Academic institutions-a primary target-have been more than
receptive to the disparity
 panic being spread by the gender police.  At Harvard Business School,
enrollment of
 women is up to 30 percent, an increase from 26 percent in 1996.  The
school's managing
 director of admissions recently told the Wall Street Journal that
Harvard would be
 distributing a new brochure geared towards women, stressing the
flexibility of the
 degree and the value of networking with fellow business school
graduates.  
         Statistical disparities are the rule, not the exception in
life.  While broad
 recruitment and equal opportunity are good ideas, there may be
perfectly mundane
 reasons to explain the disparities in business school enrollment. 
There is also
 reason to reject the notion that male and female enrollment must be the
same.  
         Business school, though valuable, simply isn't for everyone, male
or female.  For
 example, one young high-tech entrepreneur told the same Wall Street
Journal reporter
 that after weighing the benefits, she decided to pass and continue in her
chosen
 field.  Silicon Valley, she explained, placed more value on innovation
than "three
 little letters after my name."
         While women choose business school less than men, women
continue to earn a
 significant majority of master's degrees.  And so it seems rather
patronizing to
 dispute the preferences of more than 150,000 women a year for a less

lucrative but
 perhaps more stimulating field of study, as if they were unable to make
independent
 choices.
         The choices women are making about their education and careers
bode well for their
 future performance in the job market.  For many female executives
around the country,
 they have already begun to pay big dividends.  What is responsible for
this success
 are the free personal choices of individual women, not glossy pamphlets
or alarmist
 opinion surveys.  And despite the disparity propaganda, there is no
cause for alarm.
         The doors remain open and the tools of access are available to
any and all comers,
 male and female.  The time has come to stop second-guessing women's
career choices and
 to accept and applaud them instead.  Rather than spreading panic, the
gender police
 would be better employed at celebrating the diversity of the economy
women have helped
 to create.
 - Katherine Post


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