Educating Women on the Benefits of A Career in Business

It’s been almost three years since a groundbreaking study entitled “Women and the MBA: Gateway to Opportunity,” found that despite high satisfaction among women who received MBAs, enrollment of women in the top 20 business schools remained static at 30%.  The study, which surveyed men and women who graduated between 1980 through 1995 and who attended 12 of the top 20 business schools, identified several barriers for women in pursuing a graduate degree in business. Among them, a clear disconnect between young women’s perceptions of business careers and the actual experiences of the women MBAs surveyed.

While the study raised awareness among academicians and businesses, these same misperceptions among young women persist. The latest figures indicate that women made up roughly 44% of the student body in medical schools and law schools in 2002, but they accounted for only 30.3% of students enrolled in the top 20 business schools according to data culled from Businessweek.

Indeed, one reason for the disconnect is how a career in business is perceived by young women.  “Women want to be in professions where they are perceived as making a difference and they want to help others,” notes Julie Barefoot, assistant dean and director of MBA admissions at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School.  “Medicine and law seem more like helping professions, as opposed to business.”

Andrea Hershatter, assistant dean and director of the undergraduate business degree program at Goizueta acknowledges that “more than 10% of our population will go to law school and simply want the knowledge that an undergraduate business education can provide.”  The rationale for this decision varies, but Hershatter believes that “there is a fairly widespread perception about the characteristics of a prototypical MBA that may be inconsistent with some women’s self-identification and personal aspirations. The undergraduate degree attracts a much wider range of students with more disparate interests and a wider variety of reasons for seeking business as an academic field. Therefore, it may be easier for undergraduate women to self-identify with a BBA program.”

“I believe our female representation is higher at the BBA level because our women are less likely than their MBA counterparts to calculate the value of their undergraduate education in terms of return on investment and more likely to pursue business as an academic interest than necessarily exclusively as a career pathway,” notes Hershatter, who is also a senior lecturer in organization and management at Goizueta.

Exposing women to that career pathway is one of the goals of the Forté Foundation, a non-profit organization that was launched in late 2001 in response to the Women and MBA study. An alliance of educational institutions, businesses and non-profit groups, the foundation’s mission is to build awareness of business education and careers among young women, to increase the pipeline of women entering business, and to support the careers of women through business networks. The ultimate goal of the foundation, which Goizueta joined in 2003, is to counter the myths about the world of business and increase the number of women business owners and business leaders.

“One of the key barriers to access to business education is the lack of awareness and knowledge women have about the value and flexibility of business careers and education,” says Jeanne M. Wilt, acting executive director of Forté and assistant dean for admissions and career development at the University of Michigan Business School. “We need to demonstrate more effectively how business careers can be intellectually challenging, financially rewarding and socially useful.”

To this end, the inaugural series, "Forté Forum: The MBA Value Proposition" was launched last fall and attracted more than 900 women in five cities. Women panelists from area businesses and schools in each city shared their MBA and work experiences in an informal setting. This year the forum has expanded to eight U.S. cities and will also visit London.

As the MBA study showed, many women with an MBA showed great satisfaction with choosing a career in business.  Yet many are acutely aware of the misperceptions about the “big bad business world.” 

Erin Spencer, a Harvard MBA who has worked at Salomon Brothers Inc, Goldman Sachs, Bain & Company and Accenture, notes “I think the perception that success depends on more than intelligence and education, but on charisma and knowing how to play the game, scares women away from business school.”

Spencer along with Kathy Harris, an MBA recipient who is a Senior Vice President of Noro-Moseley Partners (“NMP”), the oldest and largest venture capital firm in the Southeastern United States, were participants in a Graduate Women in Business “Women in Entrepreneurship” panel discussion, held at Goizueta in April.  Neither woman felt fears of the glass ceiling were legitimate reasons for not pursuing a career in business or an MBA.

 “I would say don’t focus on the glass ceiling or any other distraction. Instead, focus on being the best you can be in your chosen profession and those distractions will take care of themselves. Maybe a fraction of what you hear about the big bad business world is true, and 90% of it is just a perception that has trickled down over time,” Harris says.

Concerns about the glass ceiling and childrearing were among the issues Tamara Levadi considered when weighing the decision to seek an MBA at Goizueta.

While working as a director of operations at SCORE Educational Centers, Levadi realized that “in order for me to ever get to make high level business decisions, I needed to get an MBA.”  In addition, “While working at SCORE, I was intrigued with the business skills and the creativity needed to help a business grow. I saw an MBA as a way to affect change, and that’s why I decided to take the business route.”

She also acknowledged that she felt an MBA would boost her earning potential. Yet she wanted to be true to herself and committed to any future employer. “ I realized I would be 29 when I graduated business school and I’d have a lot invested. If I wanted to have children and possibly work part-time would I regret the decision?” 

Ultimately, Levadi, who will marry in March, chose to pursue her MBA and now says she doesn’t regret it. “I just graduated, I am enthusiastic about a new job with Home Depot that I’ll be starting in July, plus the degree did result in a boost in salary.”

For Meridith L. Rentz, Executive Administrator, Department of Medicine at Emory University Hospital, the business side of healthcare is how she fulfills the need to make a difference. She sought a dual degree MBA/MPH from Goizueta and Emory to take her career to the next level.

“There is a natural tension in healthcare between the tenets of business efficiency and financial constraints and the fundamental need to do what’s best for the patient.  Many times, these drivers are aligned, but at certain times they are not,” Rentz explains.  “That - to me - is what makes working on the business side of healthcare just a bit more challenging and interesting than working in a basic corporate environment.  You really have to be creative and exercise good judgment when making business decisions - it’s not just a financial bottom line that’s at risk, its peoples lives.”

Rentz also finds the benefits of a business career extends beyond helping others, it provides the challenge and fulfillment that defines success for her.

“For me, working in healthcare passes the ‘look yourself in the mirror test.’  It’s the time you look yourself in the eye and decide if you’re happy to go to work that day and/or if you feel good about what you do.  This is important to me because I worked in investment banking which - for me - definitely did not pass the ‘mirror test.’  This is a very personal decision.  There is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ job or career path.  For some, investment banking may very well pass the ‘mirror test.’”

But for Rentz, this distinction is vital.  “So even after a rough day of budget meetings or tedious policy discussions, I still go home with the fundamental belief that I am contributing in my own small way to our overall goal at Emory’s Health Sciences Center of ‘making people healthy.’”

Amy Hernandez also looked to an MBA at Goizueta as a way to strengthen her skills and broaden her career choices. “I knew I would need a higher degree to advance sufficiently in my career, and the MBA seemed to provide the most versatility and flexibility of many graduate degree options,” Hernandez explains. “I also knew it would give me an opportunity to exercise and strengthen my competitive mindset.”

With a background in writing, editing and communications, Hernandez used her graduate work to “balance out” her experience with a proven aptitude for quantitative work. In her current role, Hernandez uses all of her skills as a project coordinator at Solvay Pharmaceuticals.

“I would reiterate to women considering pursuing an MBA that it is the most diverse graduate degree you can get,” Hernandez notes. “The curriculum is appealingly flexible -- especially at Goizueta -- and the degree itself will enable you to strive for greater flexibility in your career over the long term because of the broad knowledge it imparts.”

Goizueta grad Rhonda Harper is a former math teacher who found an MBA offered her the leverage needed to change careers along with the intellectual challenges she was seeking.

“Growing up in a traditional Midwest rural environment, teachers were among the only role models for smart, independent, women leaders who worked outside the family,” says Harper. “So, I became a high school math teacher. While I loved the experience, it became clear to me after learning more about the business world that it was where I really belonged. So, I decided to change careers. Obtaining an MBA allowed that transition.”

Harper climbed up the career ladder in consumer package goods marketing. Her ascent culminated in positions as an Officer and Vice President of Marketing for both VFI, VF Corporation and then Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., the largest publicly held company in the world. In 2002, she achieved her long-term goal of running her own business, by founding RTM&J - Real Truth Marketing & Joy. In so doing, she joined the growing ranks of women owning their own businesses.

Harper began a family a few years after obtaining her MBA and never struggled with the work/life balance issue.  She believes that in many instances women sabotage their own careers by assuming a traditional model and not exploring alternatives.  “In our case, it just made sense for my husband to leave the workforce and become a full time stay-at-home dad,” Harper observes. “That was many years ago and while it’s becoming more common, I believe that more women should consider it as a viable option.”   

Crystal Mario found an MBA provided the launch pad to start a business that combines wise environmental stewardship and social responsibility.

“Establishing a business requires strong research and analytical skills, and my MBA helped with both of these requirements,” Mario says.  “I also have had tremendous ongoing support from the faculty and staff at Goizueta.”

Mario founded Rivanna Natural Designs, a manufacturer of distinctive corporate gifts and awards, in 2001. Her company provides employment and training for recently-arrived refugees.  Mario’s products are made of sustainably harvested or reclaimed wood and recycled glass. Even the packing material used is organic cotton, wood curls, and recycled cardboard.

The flexibility of being a business owner has also helped shape Mario’s business practices. “I am strongly committed to flexibility in the workplace -- job sharing, flex-time, time off for school and community events, and so on.  This is largely based on my experience working with other professionals (mostly women) who have benefited from, or would have benefited from, greater flexibility to balance family and career.”

Indeed, the MBA can be a powerful tool for women who do decide to take the entrepreneurial route. Linda Travis, an entrepreneur and a Fuqua Scholar who graduated with honors from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, attributes her ability to succeed as a consultant to the lessons she learned in business school.

“The courage that it took for me to exit a long corporate marketing career and define a new entrepreneurial path years later came in part from having found the inner strength to meet the intellectual and stamina challenges of business school. Like the vitamins in a good bowl of cereal, my Fuqua experience provided the fortitude to take on new challenges,” Travis asserts.

However, getting this message out remains a challenge to recruiters, organizations, and successful women in business.

At Goizueta, “we try to educate women about the long-term career flexibility of the MBA degree as well as the variety of jobs that women can pursue with the MBA,” notes Barefoot. “These positions can meet a woman's desire for a career that is challenging and mentally stimulating. For example, if a woman wants a job that utilizes her creative gifts, a position in brand management can offer that and an MBA is a prerequisite for that type of job.”

The Forté Foundation plans to look for creative ways to partner with organizations that are already working with students in middle school and high school, like the Girl Scouts and Junior Achievement. “And we want to reach out to both boys and girls, to let them both see that a woman can be smart, can be a business leader, and that’s a good thing,” says Wilt. The study [we did] showed that everyone would benefit from seeing more women as leadership role models.”

 (June 2003)