Presenting Women's Choices

In 1970, seven years after women were first admitted to HBS's three-year MBA program, four percent of the graduating class was female.

Twenty-eight years later, the percentage is only 24 percent in the graduating class of 1998. The percentage has hovered in the 20-30 percent range since 1979.

More women attend graduate programs in law and medicine, with 45 and 40 percent of the Harvard classes graduating from each school respectively.

Jennifer Gilbert, who graduated from HBS in 1993, is now president of the Boston Network of HBS Women Alumnae, as well as the owner and president of De Havilland Fine Art Gallery and Publishing Company.

According to Gilbert, attracting women to MBA programs can be a challenge.

"One of the most compelling arguments I've heard is that business schools take students when they're older," Gilbert says. "Women start to make decisions in their lives and their professions that make their schedules less flexible."

Gilbert cited marriage and families as frequent deterrents to women's career advancement.

"The opportunity costs for women tend to be greater than for men," says Martha Achenbaum, assistant director of admissions at HBS.

"[Women] end up having to make those choices between when they're going to go to business school and when they're going to have a family," Achenbaum says. She added that men are less reluctant to attend business school while raising a family.

Achenbaum also says that informing women of the preparation they will need to gain admission to business schools while they are still in college could lead to larger applicant pools.

Women also have preconceptions that business schools lead only to certain professions--such as accounting or investment banking--but in reality they prepare students to lead any organization, she says.

"Women may not fully understand how valuable an MBA degree can be in reaching their career goals," Achenbaum says.

Along with nine other business schools, HBS has developed a program, called Women in Business Forums, that aim "to send a message that a business degree is very broad and is the kind of degree that can be very useful to anyone wanting to make an impact on an organization," according to Achenbaum.

Business schools recruit students from among working professionals, rather than other professional programs which recruit directly from colleges. Since their potential students are dispersed through companies and communities, business school admissions offices face a particular challenge in recruiting, Gilbert says.