More women are headed to business school these days, according to a piece over at Forbes.
The numbers certainly are striking. In the last decade, women have enrolled at business schools across the country in ever-greater numbers. Between 1997 and 2007, the percentage of MBAs awarded to women jumped from 39 percent to 44 percent—a 12.8 percent increase over a single decade. Top schools are showing big leaps, too: HBS went from 28 percent women in 1995 to 38 percent in 2010, while Wharton’s female population climbed from 32 percent in 2007 to 40 percent in the class of 2011.
So what’s driving the increase? The article suggests it’s the combination of a weak economy, recruiting initiatives targeted to women, and, most of all, the flexibility offered by an MBA. Female grads can take their degrees into the nonprofit world or even start their own businesses, says Deirdre Leopold, Harvard’s managing director of MBA admissions. That allows more wiggle room, especially for students juggling family responsibilities.
The increasing gender balance sure seems like good news to us!
