Dive Brief:
- A recent all-male advertisement for Harvard’s business school has brought attention to the gender imbalance in management programs.
- Fortune reports that traditional MBA programs have been criticized for enrolling too few women, but they far outpace female enrollment in executive programs at top business schools.
- Fewer than one-quarter of Harvard’s executive education students are women, and the number is even lower at MIT — 17%, according to the article.
Dive Insight:
The focus on gender equity in higher education has funneled a lot of money and effort toward increasing the number of women in various programs. On college campuses overall, women outnumber men, but in science, technology, engineering, and math courses, for example, women lag behind. Women are almost at parity with men in many MBA programs, but the courses for advanced business credentials still are largely made up of men. Fortune says that’s likely because most top executives in the country are men. The vicious cycle needs to stop somewhere, however. If more women take classes for senior executives, they’ll be more marketable for top positions.