Benefits of MBA Programs

MBA programs give women the tools to speed  up the culture change happening at higher corporate levels. It’s too bad not many women are taking advantage of the opportunity.

By: Isabel Bassett

Women of Influence Luncheon in Vancouver in 2009 turned out to be a game changer in Erin Borgfjord Ayres’ career. Just five years out of University, she felt her career had stalled: “My learning had slowed down, and I wanted and needed to learn business skills.”

The speaker was Christine Day, the dynamic CEO of Lululemon. “It was hearing her personal story of business success that solidified my decision to pursue an MBA at Queen’s School of Business,” she explains. It was a decision that paid off — graduating in the spring of 2010, she landed “the perfect job” as marketing manager at start-up Public Mobile. “It’s definitely a step up, and I definitely needed an MBA to get the job.”

This echoes other women MBA grads. Michelle Mackenzie, Executive VP and CAO of strategic communications firm, OEB Enterprise, says of her MBA, “It was the best thing I ever did — it taught me a different way of looking at problems, and gave me the confidence to ask questions.” And Claudette Paquin of Cogeco, former CEO of TFO (the Ontario French-language Educational Communications Authority) says the same of her MBA.

All of these women gained promotions or new jobs after graduation. So why is it that there are still less than 30-40% women enrolling in MBA programs? Especially when medical and law programs are signing up women in numbers likely to tip the gender balance at these formerly all-male bastions.

Research firm Catalyst and the University of Michigan surveyed 1,600 women from 12 top business schools — close to half perceived that a career in business was not in line with their personal or professional goals. And over half said that a lack of female role models in business was the main reason for not pursuing an MBA.

WHERE ARE THE ROLE MODELS FOR WOMEN IN BUSINESS?

According to the World Economic Forum’s Corporate Gender Gap Report 2010, “women remain scarce in senior management or board positions in most countries and industries.” The number of female CEOs among the world’s 600 largest employers in 20 countries surveyed is just 5%.

Besides the age-old barriers to women in business — inequality of pay, a tendency to promote men, and to sidetrack women who might want to have children — the Gender Gap report points to a “patriarchal corporate culture” that many confident, qualified women would rather avoid.

“The biggest sign of women’s discontent with work in large corporations is the growing number of women leaving to start their own businesses,” explains Ginny Dybenko, first female Dean of the Laurier School of Business and Economics, and former executive of Bell Canada and Syndesis. A recent CIBC poll confirms that there has been a 50% increase in the number of self-employed women in Canada in the past 15 years.

In their book, Why Women Mean Business, Avivah Wittenberg-Cox and Alison Maitland point out that corporate culture was developed by men in a different age, with a different family model — a model that falls short for today’s women, who demand more flexibility to balance family and work.

And, in spite of equal numbers of women entering law schools and landing positions at law firms, a disproportionate number are leaving before making partner. Historically, those who decide to raise a family have not been given the flexibility they need to balance commitments at home and at work. Others leave because they don’t see themselves ever fitting in with a business culture that smacks more of the male chauvinism of Mad Men than, say, the female leadership of The Closer.

Picking up on this trend of women avoiding or abandoning big business — leading to even fewer role models — journalist Ann Medina, chair of the President’s Council, International Women’s Forum, suggests, “have you ever thought that No role model is the New role model?” The lack of women in leadership positions might be corporate culture’s canary in the coal mine — signaling something wrong in the “air.”

Lynn Zimmer, executive director of the YWCA of Peterborough, Victoria and Haliburton, dropped out of law school in the 1970s after becoming “totally disillusioned” with the culture at the time. “Things have improved significantly since then,” she admits, but she still finds the air more satisfying in the not-for-profit sector. Zimmer had no role model, but has become one herself — a perfect example of what Medina is suggesting. Corporations ought to take notice of this trend — they are missing out on a growing pool of educated, motivated, and influential talent.

EVOLUTION, NOT REVOLUTION

Dean Ginny Dybenko points out that in order to attract more women MBA students, business schools themselves have become an example of corporate change.

Laurier’s MBA program and others are hiring more women professors, offering more flexibility in the location and timing of programs, and even waiving the work experience prerequisite. And it’s working, to a degree.

Role models are key to getting women interested in the program: Claudette Paquin volunteered at recruitment sessions for Queen’s University MBAs, and found the biggest obstacle for women was financial. “I was a good example of that. I was a single mother with two girls going to university, and had no money — but I did it, and I could tell them how.”

Dybenko also underlines the value of first-hand advice: “We run one information session after another where we bring women MBA alumnae out on stage to tell how they didn’t think they could do it, and then talk about how they did.” As a mother, Dybenko is a perfect role model herself that women can have a family, take an MBA, and be successful in business.

Business schools can only do so much to increase female MBA enrollment. Women still need to be convinced that a career in business will fit with their personal and professional goals. Corporations need to demonstrate they are willing to better accommodate women’s needs — and all the things that implies — in order to attract and retain the best talent. Those that don’t, may do so at their own peril.

The Gender Gap report’s co-author, Saadia Zahidi, states a simple truth: “Women account for one-half of the potential talent base throughout the world and therefore, over time, a nation’s competitiveness depends significantly on whether and how it educates and utilizes its female talent.”

STORY LINKS:

Corporate Gender Gap 2010 Report, World Economic Forum http://www.weforum.org/

Women and the MBA: Gateway to Opportunity, Catalyst and University of Michigan http://www.catalyst.org/publication/86/women-andthe-

mba-gateway-to-opportunity

Why Women Mean Business, by Avivah Wittenberg-Cox and Alison Maitland http://www.whywomenmeanbusiness.com/