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I had a female student in my third-year class with a very big job, who had two junior-high-school-age kids at home. And at the end of the MBA program she was talking about how much more burdensome it was for her than it had been for many others. I realized how much easier it might have been if she'd had a wife," says Candace Williams, director of San Diego State University's Executive MBA program.
Williams is joking, but not entirely. Looking at national and regional statistics, women are of mixed minds about attending business school. At SDSU the percentage of women in both full and part-time MBA programs is 36 percent, reports Nathan Evans, admissions coordinator. Many professional women who wrestle with the commitment must take into account the needs of husbands and children, as well as the demands of their own jobs.
"The national average for women in executive MBA programs is about 23 percent, lower than for part-time MBA programs," says Williams. "At SDSU, ours tends to be between 25 and 30 percent women. Why? My theory is that by the time they get into management roles — since they are required to be in a management position to take part in our program — they already have the MBA. They needed it to get there."
In a recent survey of senior-level executive women holding titles of vice president and above in Fortune 1000 companies, 31 percent had MBAs. The survey was conducted by Catalyst, a nonprofit organization working to advance women in business. (By comparison, nationally women earn more than 55 percent of the bachelor's degrees awarded.)
Concerns for executive MBA students are usually different than for those in part-time programs. For instance, says Williams, children aren’t normally an issue, as they often are for those in part-time MBA programs. "By the time they get to my program their children are usually grown. Though there are some that are full-time managers with young children at home."
One such student is Susan Zayas, director of inventory management with Foodmaker and a single mother with an 8-year-old son. "I made the decision to do it for a few reasons. It wasn’t to advance within Foodmaker, because here an MBA isn’t always necessary for that, although they were very supportive of it. But I’m 38 now and going toward the lower glass ceiling for women, usually achieved by 40, and I thought there might be other opportunities either at Foodmaker or outside of it with an MBA," she says.
Being divorced was a benefit. Zayas' ex-husband had their son every other weekend, when classes met. "I ran into problems on weeknights when study groups would meet, although I did manage to make the majority of them. The choice for me was how to spend my free time and I chose school."
Zayas says she was one of about seven women in a class of 33. And although she acknowledges that women face different pressures than men when making a decision about graduate school, she's not sure gender is an issue anymore. "I know of five women here at Foodmaker that are either getting their MBA or who have asked me about it. I do think that for many women who are still at home with their children, the executive MBA program is a costly one. So it might not be in the best interest of their family as a unit, versus their husband going to school. Women probably tend to get their MBAs younger, for that reason," she says.
 It wasn’t children that put demands on former full-time MBA student Gayle Barrett, who attended SDSU, but her practice as a psychologist. "There was a lot more homework than I had anticipated — about 35 hours a week — so I basically had a full-time practice and was going to school full time," she says. "I didn’t sleep, didn’t see my husband. In the second year I had to cut down to a half-time practice."
Barrett returned to school because she wanted skills to make her marketable outside of her chosen profession should managed care drive her out of private practice. She says being a woman didn’t affect her decision to go back to school. But once there, she was surprised at how competitive an MBA program could be. "In an MBA program you work hard and compete hard with each other. I don’t know if all women are comfortable with that. It also seemed like many of the men in the program had math and engineering backgrounds, where the women didn’t, and I think that’s another thing that might affect women getting their MBAs. It was more daunting to the women. I hadn't done algebra longer than some people in the program had been alive."
Ann Ambrose, director of communications at University of California at Irvine's Graduate School of Management, says over the last several years women have made up between 25 percent to 30 percent of the school's MBA classes — full-time, part-time, executive and health care MBA programs. "It’s a big commitment in terms of time and money," Ambrose says. "Our fully employed MBA program is competitive with other business schools and for three years it costs $55,000."
A woman with a family also needs to have her family buy into the MBA program, says Ambrose. "The family is going to have to understand that mom may not be around to take them to soccer because she has homework or a study group session. And there is probably concern about a woman's career path — will taking time off to get the MBA damage her performance at work?"
Kiera Friedrich, MBA program manager at California State University, San Marcos, says CSU's program was about 38 percent women in 1998-1999, nearly the same as the previous year. But it has been higher. In 1996, women held 43 percent of MBA slots.
"Traditionally I think MBA programs are about 40 percent women," says Friedrich. "In my opinion — and it’s just my opinion — many feel they can’t spare the time to get the degree. I participated in Women in Business Expo in Riverside in 1997, to advertise our program and promote it to women. I don’t think we recruited one person from that conference."
The type of women attending the expo surprised Friedrich. "Most of these women weren’t even interested in the MBA degree and had lower education levels than I expected, yet many of them were business owners."
Self-employment and business ownership statistics may illustrate another reason women remain a minority in MBA courses. Suzanne Israel Tufts, president and chief executive of the American Women's Economic Development Corp. in New York, says national studies show women starting businesses at twice the rate of men. "Close to 40 percent of all small businesses are now owned by women," says Tufts. "These women are less likely to go get an MBA than those in corporate America. They may go to a senior-level program for a few weeks, at Harvard or something like that. But they can’t leave their businesses for a longer period of time to go to business school."
UCI's Ambrose says both she and director of admissions Barbara Kraft have observed this trend. "Especially now it seems to be increasing. We host information sessions and meet prospective students and if a man or woman is starting a business they tend to devote their time and financial resources into growing their business. Even though they recognize that getting an MBA is an important step, often they just can’t make that commitment."
Tufts says surveys used by the Women's Economic Development Corp. for research show a huge influx of women in their early 20s coming out of college and starting business. "In 24 years (of AWED's existence) we’ve never seen anything like this."
But San Diego’s concentration of high-tech and biotech industries could be forcing the trend locally in a different direction. In fact, the University of San Diego’s figures go against the national trend. Female enrollment in its MBA program has actually increased over the last three years.
"Female students have increased in percentage, from 35 percent to 43 percent," says David Light, director of graduate business programs at USD. "I think because San Diego is a young city with young industries this trend may be specific to the high-tech concentration here. Many of our students are employed in the biomed field, telecommunications and software and they may find it necessary to continue aggressively acquiring information."
These relatively young industries probably have fewer "old" attitudes, says Light, and are therefore more attractive to women. "I’m guessing there is probably a greater penetration of women in those fields than in older industries."
USD's program also is billed as more personalized than the average MBA program, a characteristic that could make it more attractive overall, but especially to women. "We like to think that personalized touch makes us more accessible," says Light.
Jennifer Woolley, a 24-year-old microcomputer specialist, is currently getting her MBA in USD's full-time program. "Part of the reason I decided to go back to school now was because I knew other women who went back to get their MBAs or other master's degrees later on, and it was much more difficult for them," she says. Having been manager of a health care firm, Woolley was told she had reached a plateau and needed another degree to advance.
Even though she did her undergraduate work at an all-women's college, Woolley says she wasn’t intimidated by the thought of a male-dominated MBA program. "I realized that if you are a woman and serious about making a name for yourself and succeeding, it won’t happen if you are daunted by gender differences. You have to get over that or you'll never make it."
United States International University sees similar trends. "Enrollment in the MBA and MIBA (Masters in International Business) from 1995 to 1998 shows an increase in both the numbers of women enrolled in our programs as well as the percentage of women as a portion of the total," says spokeswoman Anita Gomes. Numbers drop off slightly in 1998, but Gomes says that’s probably due to the strength of the economy, not women backing off of MBA programs. "When business is good, graduate enrollment drops. But in an employer-driven market, people need the degree to make themselves stand out."
The question that remains is how schools are trying to draw in female students.
National University markets its programs, including the MBA, to a variety of populations. But the most difficult to reach are professional women about 34 years old, an age that also is the average age of a National student.
"These women have extreme pressures on them just running a household and then trying to maintain a career," explains Teri Hoggard, coordinator for scholarships and special services at the university. "Women today are looking for career positions and advancement and I think they see the MBA as vital to that, the same as men. But I think women have to coordinate their schedules and meet different demands than men."
Hoggard says with its night classes and online programs, National aims to draw in students who might find it otherwise difficult to go back to school, such as single mothers. "National's approach is to specifically encourage these women to continue their education. We offer a Presidential Scholarship award for economically and educationally disadvantaged that would be appropriate for a single parent."
UCI is trying to reach out to women by having its female students volunteer to be program ambassadors, calling prospective students and fielding questions about the MBA program. "They can talk about their own experiences and generally what the concerns are for women. I think it helps prospective students to see women in similar situations are able to complete their degrees," says Ambrose.
No matter what the stats say, CSU's friedrich says women involved with their careers still see the value of an MBA. "Most of the women I know who want to climb the career ladder take what steps are needed. And an MBA certainly does help. I’ve seen several single mothers attending our MBA program. It’s hard enough to juggle work and home and school, let alone do it as a single mother. But they've done it," she says, "and done it successfully."
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