People come to recognise gender imbalance and inequality at different times for different reasons. I have written before that for many people falling pregnant and trying to find childcare, can be the first tangible, and illustrative, obstacle that the world isn’t quite as equal as they might have hoped.
For one professor seeing the data on MBA enrolments, proved a turning point. While women comprise about half of all enrolments in business courses and degrees at university, they make up only 35% of MBA students. And that figure is quite constant the world over.
Why is this, he asked. To my mind it’s not dissimilar to the retirement income gap between men and women. At first glance it might seem surprising but, dig a little deeper, and it’s quite intuitive. It simply reflects the cumulative effect of the dynamics that still impede women at work.
On average, women earn about 17.6% less than men and over the course of a career this adds up. It is still mostly women who take the longest breaks from work to have babies. Their return to work is then, often, impeded by the cost and availability of childcare. In that regard, their lower income can disadvantage them again; if the cost of childcare exceeds the income of either parent the family might choose for the person earning less to stop working, or to work part-time. By and large it is still women who are in that position. Aside from the short-term income lost, this arrangement has longer-term ramifications in terms of that parent’s career advancement and future earning potential.
Another relevant factor is that women still do the lion’s share of unpaid work, from caring for children and elderly relatives to domestic duties. The less ‘unpaid’ work you do, the more ‘paid’ work you are available to do, which is another reason why far more women work part-time than men.
Because the negative stigma around part-time and flexible work still abounds, this can be limiting again in terms of potential career advancement and future earning. Once again, the consequence is that individual women earn less both in the short term and the long term.
These factors all conspire to limit, rather than facilitate, women’s workforce participation. The retirement income gap is indicative of that and I would argue the gender composition of MBA students is too.
An MBA requires an investment of time and money, resources which, crudely, thanks to many of the above factors, women are less rich in than men. The professor I spoke to highlighted issues like inflexible schedules which might deter more women from committing to the course.
I’m sure that’s a factor but I also wonder whether another less conscious factor might explain why women comprise only 35% of MBA enrolments. An MBA is undoubtedly a valuable tool for anyone aspiring to an executive career. I wonder how many women look around corporate Australia, at the ASX500 for example, and conclude investing in an MBA might not procure a return. If women held 35% of top roles in companies we’d all be laughing, and an MBA might make sense to more women. Just a thought.
Why do you think fewer women do their MBAs?
Check back with Women’s Agenda tomorrow for more on the MBA gender gap debate, when we’ll hear from Professor Charles Areni, Associate Dean (research) of Macquarie Graduate School of Management.