Stanford is the most gender-balanced business school in our ranking, with an MBA class 53% male/ 47% ... [+]
And the top 3 business schools in the world are the most gender balanced. Chicken or egg? Here’s a look at the crucial role business schools could now play on mainstreaming the idea that gender balancing business is a management competency that requires teaching – to both men and women.
TIPPING POINT?
Our 2020 Business School Gender Balance Scorecard shows that 0ver half (11) of the Top 20 business schools in the world have now balanced their MBA student populations (which we define as a maximum of 60% of any gender) and the top three are nearing parity. This should positively contribute to a continued knock-on effect in company leadership, salaries and pay gaps in the coming years.
This trend should continue, as GMAC is reporting that the gender ratios of people taking the entrance exam is nearing parity (46.3% women/ 53.7% men), the most balanced levels in the history of the exam. They also note that “multiple pre-experience business master’s program types have reached gender parity or near parity in their applicant pools - including Master of Accounting (54% of applications from women), Master in Management (50%), and Master of Finance (43%).” But they note that women accounted for only 38% of applications to full-time MBA programs in 2018. That’s where an opportunity lies.
TOP MARKS…
…goes to Stanford Graduate School of Business, with its balanced 53%M/ 47%F student cohort. That’s a 6% leap on female students from last year, when it was ranked by the Financial Times as the best business school in the world. Prospective female students may have taken note – and been attracted to the best. Also note, the greatest improvement goes to Hong Kong’s HKUST, with a 7% jump. They also get top marks on faculty (see below). Watch this space. What do you think they see as a competitive advantage?
20-first Business School Gender Balance Scorecard 2020
EUROPE TRAILS
The European schools in the Top 20 lag their American counterparts and not a single one has achieved balance, although LBS is closest with its 38F/ 62M ratio. For the others, MBA cohorts remain resolutely male dominated, with over two thirds of students being men. INSEAD, IESE and HEC Paris all continue to struggle with gender balancing their classrooms. This does not bode well for Europe’s business talent pipeline. Or for the European companies (and business school clients) trying to balance their own businesses.
A notable exception, and the leader of the European pack, is Oxford’s Said business school. It’s currently ranked by the FT as the no. 23 school in the world. But its gender balance, at 44% F/ 56% M would make it no.3 in terms of gender balance, inching ahead of Harvard. It will be interesting to see if this balance, part of a concerted strategy by the school, will contribute to pushing it up the list in the coming years. Watch this space.
The Biz School Culture Challenge: Faculty
As in companies, representation is one thing, culture shifts and real inclusion are another. While business schools have been focused on balancing their student bodies, there’s been less progress on faculty, which arguably has an even bigger impact on what gets taught, researched and prioritised. The majority of the Top 20 schools have stubbornly registered either no change or a minimal increase of 1-2% in female faculty numbers. And, as Lesley Symons has shown, the case studies used to educate MBAs about business overwhelmingly feature men. Two schools – Northwestern University: Kellogg and University of California at Berkeley: Haas – have appointed female deans. We’ll see if having women at the helm contributes to more significant shifts in the future.
Despite all the attention and impact of #MeToo on companies and leaders, there has been little if any mainstreaming of gender education into core MBA curriculums, aside from the odd class (Full disclosure: a notable exception was the course I was invited to teach at HEC Paris entitled “Gender Balance: A Strategic Imperative?”). Much of the focus of efforts remains on asking men to voluntarily be nice enough to be “allies” for women, rather than framing gender balance as a business imperative requiring specific management competencies. This latter is the approach of the Forte Fondation, which lobbies to increase the gender equity of business schools. It has created guidelines for men who may want to take up the charge. Business schools are far more likely to offer Fix-the-Women approaches with a range of Women in Leadership programs added to their Executive Education offerings. Or reinforce the old trope that women ‘lack confidence’ and business schools can help them build it, like this film from Oxford’s Said Business School titled Gender equality in business: Building confidence to address the balance. A better film would be one titled, Building Balance Boosts Confidence. Or, as Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic would argue, Gender equality in business calms male over-confidence.
Instead, it may be time to update our frame. Business schools should invite their male majorities, as more and more of their client companies are doing, to learn about one of the rising business tides of the 21st century: women. Until business schools themselves and their male-dominated faculties address the issue as a business imperative and teach it as a management skill to all their MBA classes, it’s likely to continue to be seen as largely irrelevant to what business schools are all about: business.
Hopefully, the growing balance of the student bodies, and the outperformance of the most balanced schools, will lead to more balancing of organisations’ faculties, leadership and teaching. We’ve come a long way on MBAs, it’s time to start getting more ambitious on the culture and messages they will be imbibing. The health and relevance of the schools themselves – and the business world they feed into — depends on it.
