Women Fill Fewer MBA Spots Than Men, and Covid Isn’t Helping
The College of Charleston School of Business is addressing the issue by recruiting from undergraduate programs outside business.
Students in the Beatty Center, home of the College of Charleston School of Business in Charleston, S.C.
Photographer: Micah Green/Bloomberg
The U.S. MBA is no more immune to the gender gap than the rest of corporate America. Even as women make up a majority of all college students and fill more than 6 out of every 10 seats in U.S. master’s degree programs, the number of aspiring female executives continues to lag in MBA programs that are often the surest route to the corner office.
The inaugural Bloomberg Businessweek Best B-Schools Diversity Index shows women secured fewer than 40% of MBA spots at the 84 U.S. schools included in the study and were at parity or better at only five schools. In 27 out of the 84 schools, women made up one-third or less of the class. It shouldn’t be a surprise. Despite being half the workforce, less than 10% of S&P 500 chief executive officers are women, and this year was the first time women captured 30% of board seats at S&P 500 companies.