Women go from rags to riches

By Pilar Junco

Published: March 18 2003 17:22 | Last Updated: March 18 2003 17:22

The topic of today's class in process and operations management is the rag trade and, in particular, the success of a Spanish clothing company. The professor asks the class about the brand and the company's business model. A topic close to women's hearts, you might think, but only a few women get involved in the discussion.

The reason is simple: at Insead, like every other top business school school, just one in four MBA students are female.

At Insead this creates some interesting problems. MBA students here complete many of the course assignments in teams of five and, given the four to one male to female ratio, some working groups have two women, others none. The MBA office avoids putting only one woman in each group to avoid the "queen effect", when the only female group member either dominates discussions or is totally undermined.

The consequence of this is that there are some male-only groups but no female-only groups. So, during the preparation of a marketing group assignment on the typical uses of face powder, the male-only groups understandably struggled.

While business schools have difficulty recruiting more than 25 per cent of women on to their MBA programmes, numbers at postgraduate degrees in law and medicine are reflect those of the actual population. At business school the class ratio reflects the ratio of applicants, so the key must lie somewhere before the application process starts.

One of the reasons cited why so few women decide to complete an MBA has to do with the jobs that await us ongraduation. Many women believe that a business career is too inflexible; they think it will be easier to combine a career in medicine or law with their desire to have a family and maintain a stable relationship.

Through my lawyer and doctor friends - female and male - I know this is far from the truth. However they have a lot more female colleagues and bosses than I had while working in investment banking.

The lack of female role models definitely does not help. When we asked a group of newcomers to the MBA about the woman they admired most, more than half mentioned their mothers, some a female friend, boss or colleague and only a few talked about female business leaders such as Carly Fiorina (CEO of HP) or Anita Rodrick (founder of the Body Shop).

A young woman in her late twenties or early thirties who starts an MBA will not only join a class with a large majority of males, but will also be taught by almost only male professors. Carol, from the US, is unperturbed. "Most of us girls are actually used to working in a mostly male environment," she says. "Business school is just an extension of that world and thus I don't even mind the imbalance."

Another set of reasons revolves around the topic of relationships. The average age of an MBA student at Insead is 29, an age when many are either married or thinking about it. Packing up your belongings and moving to the Fontainebleau forest for a year to complete one of the most intense MBAs out there is not a quick decision. Partners have to be considered and often it is harder for a young woman to leave everything behind, than it is for a man of her age.

Around a quarter of MBA students at Insead are married and many of our male peers have brought their partners along. These women form a close network, are actively involved in campus life and participate in all the social activities. Often they leave their own careers behind and it is hard for them to find a full time job for one year. They are of great support to their partners, taking care of life outside school, especially if they have children.

Life for my female peers with partners is often different, especially for those that come from more traditional backgrounds or countries. Yuan, a TV producer from China who is married, came to Fontainebleau alone. She receives regular letters and emails from relatives and friends at home blaming her for leaving her husband behind. She says however that he is very supportive. "He said to me: 'Do this for yourself '. I feel very lucky for that."

Another example of a supportive partner is Leila's boyfriend. Both are from Lebanon and he took up a job in Paris to be closer to her.

Nevertheless these cases are still rare and many of my female peers juggle the demands of the MBA with the problems of long distance relationships. However when you ask them, none of them would want their partners to move to Fontainebleau and take a year off to support them on-site: "We would not want them to hang around campus all day without a proper job."

All in all, it seems that most of us want both a challenging and interesting job and a partner that supports us. At the same time we want to be able to achieve a work-life balance that allows us to plan families. And yes, we do remember that the day has only 24 hours.

Most of my female peers are aware that sooner or later they will have to make choices, since achieving everything at once is almost impossible, especially if we take into account that many of us came to Insead because we want to pursue international careers and that more than half of us will be accepting employment outside our home countries.

Yet completing an MBA at a time when most of the women our age think about having babies is probably the best we can do for our future careers. Juliette, a French consultant, thinks that in the business world it is more important for a woman than for a man to have an MBA. "Because we will face these trade-offs in our future, I think that an MBA acts like an insurance that will allow us to access the job market easier when we are ready to do so," she says.

Given some of the topics we discuss in class during the MBA - and I don't just mean face powder promotions or dress manufacturers - one could not imagine a MBA class without women. If more women pursue MBAs, this will hopefully mean that it will soon be impossible to imagine a boardroom without women either.