According to the research conducted by Forte foundation, in the pandemic year 2020, a higher percentage of female enrollment has been noticed making the MBA classroom a more balanced one in terms of gender distribution. The research was based on a total of 52 schools out of which 22 had a count of 40% women enrollment and the same research when conducted ten years back resulted in only one school.

In fact, from 8 schools we get a count of 45% and above women enrolling for the 2020 year. This news has come as a breeze of positivity after a tumultuous year of COVID-19 accompanied by gender inequality at workplaces. To add to the statement, a Harvard Business research has stated how women employees despite forming only 39% of the total workforce ended up losing 54% of their jobs during the pandemic. As McKinsey has rightly pointed out, women employees are twice as much vulnerable when it comes to working.

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Top Business Schools for Women

According to the research conducted by Forte, it has been further noticed that the count of women who enrolled in the 52 B-schools and the schools that hold the topmost business programs of Canada, the US, Europe has been synonymous with the count of the previous year or 2019. Here we have listed the colleges that received more than 45% of women enrollments are:

• George Washington School of Business - US
• Dartmouth College (Tuck School of Business) - US
• University of Oxford (Said School of Business) - UK
• Washington University in St. Louis (Olin Business School) - US
• Duke University (Fuqua School of Business) - US
• University of Maryland (Smith School of Business) - US
• Arizona State University (W.P. Carey School of Business) - US
• University of Virginia (Darden School of Business) - US

What Stands in the Future?

From the above context, there are certain researches that come across the way and need to be stated for the future. It should be noted that women employees hold only a mere 25% of the c-suite or the executive level managers in a company. But the MBA programs generally bloom into opportunities for executive roles. According to S&P, just a handful of 6% of women come under the CEO cadre and 40% of those women have a successful MBA degree. Some of those celebrated women CEOs who come under S&P’s 500 companies: Mary T. Barra (General Motors), Jennifer M. Johnson ( Franklin Resources Inc.), Margaret M. Keane (Synchrony Financial), Reshma Kewalramani (Vertex Pharma), Judy Marks (Otis Worldwide Corporation), Lisa Palmer (Regency Centers Corporation), Sonia Sygnal (Gap), Jayshree V. Ullal (Arista Networks).

According to Elissa Sangster, the CEO of Forté, “An MBA, can help more women crack the glass ceiling in business and help build the leadership pipeline at companies.”

Additionally, business schools, to curb every possibility of gender inequality and biasedness, encourage women to interact with international peers, have conversations, and unite to fight against gender inequality in workplaces in every form - harassment to unequal pay. This marching towards fighting against gender biasedness is not only applicable for women and their future prospects but also for the corporate workplace. Since workplaces are formed of both men and women and the struggle for equal pay has been a striking factor for a perpetual time.

This has been pillared by the Boston Consulting Group or BCG that companies that have a diversified workforce with gender unbiasedness result in 19% higher revenues than other places that follow old-school methods.

With regard to the shift in the modern workforce and its values, the millennial generation is more inclined towards getting employed in companies that are more focused on inclusion when taking in new employees. This results in an indirect effect when hiring new employees having fresh talent.

Though it still cannot be absolutely stated that women have reached the epitome of equality and equal pay but according to the report of Forte, it can be expected that there will be a surge in women employees as can be seen in the high enrollment of women in the MBA programs. This will also lead to a more balanced workforce in the companies.