Business schools still lag behind law and medicine in gender parity
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Women still make up a minority of students at business schools, per a report out Thursday.
Why it matters: B-school is an outlier — women represent the majority of enrollees at law schools and medical schools, and they surpassed men in undergrad enrollment decades ago.
The big picture: Getting more women enrolled in MBA programs could help to boost the share of women leaders inside big companies, where their numbers still lag.
- 41% of women CEOs in the S&P 500 have an MBA or advanced degree in business.
By the numbers: 42% of enrolled B-school students are women, per data from the nonprofit advocacy group Forté Foundation. The number was unchanged from 2023. But there's been progress over the longer term.
- When Forte began tracking this data more than 20 years ago, only 28% of MBA students were women.
- The group looked at numbers from 61 business schools in the U.S., Europe and Canada.
Eight reported gender parity this fall, including the business schools at Duke and Northwestern.
- That's up from just one school in 2020.
- A record 19 schools reported women's enrollment at 45% or higher, including Harvard Business School, which was long criticized as an unwelcome place for women and has made efforts to improve.
