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.