Encouraging Women to Attend Graduate Business School – Part II

In my last post I asked the question: What do business people do?

The answer: EVERYTHING AND ANYTHING.

That’s the thrill of a business school education – it can be utilized in so many different kinds of positions and industries.

Some of these positions you may be able to name – accountants, Wall Street stock brokers, marketing people, computer programmers . Yet these are only the beginning.

And what about industries? Oil companies, retail chains, consulting practices, brokerage firms, food manufacturers, automobile manufacturers. The list is endless.

This is where internships during the college years come in handy. Pick an industry that appeals to you – and get an internship in that industry. Then talk to the people who work there and see what education they have, what training they’ve gone through, what their goals and expectations are. You may discover that going to graduate business school after a couple of years of work experience could be just the thing for you.

Oh, yes, don’t worry about the math. Back in the Stone Age, I had to pass a calculus course before I started Wharton. I lived and breathed calculus for three weeks, passed the course, and NEVER USED CALCULUS AGAIN in my two years of graduate business school.

If you think graduate business school may be your destiny, go for it. And one day on television you may see "House" and "Boston Legal" make room for "Business Basics."

Encouraging Women to Attend Graduate Business School – Part I

U.S. law schools and medical schools in recent years have been successful in bringing their classes up to 50% women, yet top graduate business schools still cannot get classes of 50% women.

Many theories abound for why this is so. One such reason is that, while students usually go to med school or law school right out of undergraduate college, nowadays graduate business schools want their students to first have “real world” business experience for several years. This requirement, the theory goes, pushes women up against their “biological ticking clock.”

The problem is being addressed in several ways. One recently announced special Masters of Business Administration (M.B.A.) program is Harvard’s 2+2 , in which college liberal arts majors who are juniors apply to Harvard Business School. If these students are accepted, they are assigned a mentor to help them obtain a job in the business world for two years, and then they enroll at Harvard.

The other reason that women may not be flocking to business schools in the same numbers as to law schools and medical schools is because there is less understanding of what BUSINESS is all about.

You all know from watching television shows what doctors do (or don’t do in the case of “House”) and what lawyers do (or don’t do in the case of “Boston Legal”). But what do business people do?

In my next post I’m going to answer this question.