Female MBA Students on Rise at Beedie School of Business: MBA News

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Simon Fraser University’s Beedie School of Business has announced a female majority in its current class of 2013/14, posting a registration rate of 52% for females on its full-time MBA program.

“Having such an even male-female ratio brings a different perspective to business topics – and I think it’s a step in the right direction to improve gender imbalances in the workplace,” said Kelly Scott, an MBA student at Beedie School of Business, in a press release.

Classes that have more female MBA students in any given intake is something that is still rare across in the world. According to 2011-12 data sourced by the AACSB (The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business), female MBA students make up an average of approximately 36% among its accredited schools.

Addressing MBA gender imbalance at MGSM

The issue of gender imbalance at MBA-level is the subject of a new research initiative announced by Australia’s Macquarie Graduate School of Management (MGSM) this week.

The project, known as Women in MBAs (WiMBA), will seek to analyze the underlying reasons for the global gender imbalance and develop strategies to address it.

“Statistics show at the undergraduate level women outnumber men and the trend continues in pre-experience master’s degrees, however in MBAs women are absent,” said MGSM’s dean, Alex Frino in a press release, adding that female MBA students in Australia represented 35% of the total in 2013.

MGSM plans to speak to female MBAs about their experiences and any issues they faced in their program from enrolment through post-graduation in order to find out what needs changing to improve the MBA gender imbalance.

“Business schools need to become smarter about how to create a better learning environment for women that attract them to MBA study. We believe that by addressing the inequality at enrolment level we could have a real impact on the numbers of women working in senior management, executive ranks and on the boards of our leading companies,” said Frino. MGSM’s WiMBA project findings are due for release towards the end of 2014.

At Beedie School of Business, it seems that existing initiatives designed to encourage female enrolment have engendered a steady increase in their numbers on the MBA program. The school partners with the Women’s Executive Network to provide mentoring opportunities for its MBA students from leading female figures in Canadian business. In addition, a student-run program supporting emerging female leaders, The Graduate Business Women’s Council, was founded by MBA students at Beedie School of Business in 2011.