关注社会:为何获得MBA的女性较少?

Why more women don't get MBAs

It's a bit puzzling: Over the past 20 years, as women have made tremendous gains in the business world, the percentage of B-school students who are female has remained at about 30%, or roughly the same now as in the late '80s. (By contrast, female enrollment in law and medical schools has risen over the same time period to about 50%.)

The Forté Foundation started in 2001 with a mission: to encourage more women to consider getting an MBA, and to provide them with information about how to do it.

Sponsored by 21 companies, among them IBM (IBM, Fortune 500), Goldman Sachs (GS, Fortune 500), Ernst & Young, American Express (AXP, Fortune 500), and Avon (AVP, Fortune 500), and 37 B-schools -- including Harvard, Chicago, Wharton, MIT, and Columbia -- Forté is holding a series of conferences called "The MBA Value Proposition" in five cities (San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, and Boston) between now and October 1.

The events are designed to answer questions women may have about everything from how to finance a graduate business degree to what to do if their math skills are rusty. For more information or to register online, go to

I recently spoke with Elissa Ellis Sangster, Forté's executive director, about their work. Some excerpts from our conversation:

Let me play devil's advocate here for a minute and ask, why do women need to go to B-school? Or I'll put it this way: Does anyone really need to get an MBA in order to get ahead in businesses other than investment banking or consulting?

Well, plenty of people are successful without an MBA. But the degree does give you the ability to take your career to a higher level.

For one thing, it gives you a great network of people who are in a position to support your career in the future, and it teaches you analytical and decision-making skills that are useful in any industry, so that you have the flexibility and the nimbleness to move easily from one role to another or one industry to another.

That's an important asset, especially in this economy. An MBA is really an investment for life.

Beyond that, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has done studies showing that the more education you have, the more you earn over the course of your lifetime, and the less likely you are to be unemployed.

Right now, the overall unemployment rate is almost 10%, but for people with a master's degree, it's 2.4%. That's pretty striking.

Why are there still relatively few women MBAs?

Well, the thing that launched Forté eight years ago was a huge study of this question, by researchers at the University of Michigan and Catalyst that revealed four main reasons.

First, women were concerned about balancing work, school, and home-life responsibilities if they went back to school.

Second, they didn't see many role models -- female MBAs who were managing to juggle everything.

Third, they expressed doubts as to whether they had the quantitative background and the advanced math skills to handle MBA courses.

And fourth, they weren't getting much, if any, encouragement from their employers to get an advanced degree.

To a large extent those concerns have not gone away. So we address those issues in our forums and through our online network of about 40,000 businesswomen. We're also reaching out to undergraduate students in fields like liberal arts and engineering, holding on-campus events called "Career Labs" that encourage them to consider business careers.

How do you view women's role in the business world today in general? Is the glass half empty or half full?

It's certainly half full in the sense that, as Fortune's list of the most powerful women shows, more women are advancing in companies.

But it's half empty at the very top. There are still only 13 female CEOs of major companies, up from four a few years ago. I did the math, and at that rate of advancement, it will take women until 2096 to reach parity with men.

Also, Catalyst did a study showing that, at the senior management level -- one or two rungs below CEO -- 19% of women lost their jobs in this recession, versus 6% of men. I don't know why. It's probably due to a combination of things, including the fact that women often don't have the kinds of strong professional networks their male counterparts have. An MBA could help with that!

在过去的20年里，尽管女性在商界的成就硕果累累，但商学院学生中的女性比例还停留在30%左右，和80年代晚期相当，这很让人费解。（相较而言，在法律和医科学校就读的女性在同期已经增长了50%左右）。

复地基金会（Forté Foundation）创立于2001年，其宗旨是鼓励更多的女性考虑去获得MBA学位，并且为她们提供相关的信息，指导她们如何操作。

复地基金会由IBM、高盛（Goldman Sachs）、安永（Ernst & Young）、美国运通（American Express）、雅芳（Avon）以及包括哈佛、芝加哥大学、沃顿、麻省理工学院和哥伦比亚大学等在内的37所商学院资助创办。复地基金会从即日起至10月1日将在5个城市（旧金山、洛杉矶、芝加哥、纽约和波士顿）举办题为“MBA价值命题”的系列会议。

这次活动旨在解答女性可能遇到的一些问题，比如如何解决为获得学位而产生的经济方面的问题以及如何解决数学能力差的问题。欲获得更多信息或者欲注册，欢迎登陆

最近我与复地的执行董事爱丽萨•爱丽丝•桑斯特（Elissa Ellis Sangster）进行了一次谈话，问及了其工作的有关问题。以下是我们谈话的节选内容：

首先我想问句不该问的话：为什么女性要去读商学院？或者说，是不是想在商界有所成就，除了去投行和咨询公司以外，就只有读MBA才可以？

的确，很多商界成功人士都没读过MBA，但是这个学位会使你在职业生涯中更上一层楼。

一方面，读MBA会为你带来一个人际关系网，其中那些有职权的人会在将来你的职业发展道路上助你一臂之力。读MBA也会培养你的分析和决策能力，这对任何行业都是十分有用的。这样，你会游刃有余的穿梭于各个行业间，转行会容易的多。

这在当下的经济状况中尤其是一笔重要的资产，一个MBA学位是对一生的投资。

除此之外，美国劳工统计局做出的相关研究显示，一个人所受的教育越多，其职业道路上的收获就越多，并且失业的可能性就越小。

现在失业率已经接近10%，但是获得硕士学位的人群中失业人口仅占2.4%，这是十分令人震惊的数字。

为什么获得MBA的女性依然相对较少？

8年前由密歇根大学（University of Michigan）和Catalyst的研究者就此问题进行了一项大型研究，揭示了四点主要原因，并促成了复地基金会的成立。

首先，女性回校读书，她们要考虑平衡工作、学业与家庭生活的关系。

其次，她们没有那种可以拿来效仿的成功处理一切的女性MBA的学生典范。

第三，她们也怀疑自己有没有足够的资格和高等数学能力来攻读MBA课程。

第四，她们的雇主不会太积极地鼓励她们去攻读学位，或者说根本不会鼓励。

这些担忧依然在很大程度上存在。所以我们将在论坛和拥有4万名商界女性的在线网络处理解答这些问题。我们也会为人文科学、工程等专业的在校本科生举行名为“职业生涯实验室”的校园活动，来鼓励他们考虑从事商界的职业。

总的来说，您觉得当今世界女性在商界扮演怎样的角色？你对此持乐观态度还是悲观态度？

从某些角度来说很乐观，因为《财富》的最具影响力商界女性名单显示出女性在企业里都风头正健。

但是在高层职位来看确实相当悲观。大型公司的女性CEO仍然只有13位，和许多年前一样。我做了一下数学分析，照这个速度，想要与男性相当，我们得等到2096年。

同样，Catalyst做了一项研究显示，在低于CEO一到两级的高级管理人员中，大约有19%的女性在这场经济萧条中失去工作，而男性则只有6%。我不知道这是为什么。这可能是综合因素共同作用的结果，比如女性没有同等职位男性所拥有的强大职业关系网络。但是，一个MBA学位可能会在这一点上为女性带来裨益。