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Women and the Executive MBA: Bernadette Conraths

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By QS Contributor Updated Aug 29, 2014
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Bernadette Conraths speaks about women and the EMBA
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Bernadette Conraths shares her views from the perspective of a woman in the MBA world. As head of the executive education, WHU-Otto Beisheim School of Management, she has both the experience and the insight.

Bernadette Conraths has been Head of the Executive Education at WHU-Otto Beisheim School of Management in Germany since early 2007, responsible for the globally top ranked Kellogg-WHU Executive MBA program offered jointly with the Kellogg School of Management, Chicago, as ell as for the WHU custom company programs. It is come back’ to WHU as n the late 80’s Bernadette built up the Department of External Relations of he, then just established and today leading, private German university business school.

What advice would you give to women wishing to do an Executive MBA?

I think that the very important basic advice to women would be to be bold and for once think about yourself and not primarily about others. They're in the life phase where they have family and they have to think about the husband, the kids and Mom and Dad and so forth, which is very good and should be done, but in this phase of life if they are considering a further development through an MBA, be bold and do it for yourself. It is very important because it wll be one of the most important and transformational experiences of their lives.

Given that women often feel the pull to be fulfilling their role on the home front as well, how can they encourage their families to buy into this idea of pursuing an Executive MBA?

Yes, when I say, “be bold and think about yourself" in this case first, obviously, I don't mean this in a selfish way. You have to secure the support of your family and that is not always easy. Women can make a plea to their families (the support system) that they will need their assistance for the two years it would roughly last. This experience will give women a wealth of new opportunities, will resolve in better professional careers and personal rewards

The other party that is very important to get buy-in from is your company or corporation. How could you advise women to get that?

Women should be very proactive in her company when they want to go for further development like an EMBA. That shows first that they are committed to the business development of the company and then that they are committed to their careers in this business. They should really show this and make it understood not only to their supervisors and units but also to their corporate HRD people.

We talked a little about the idea of juggling responsibilities and family commitments and academic pursuits. Do you have any specific success stories that you could share where a woman has done this and done it very well?

Oh yes, lots. We had a couple in our last MBA class that graduated in October 2008. Arne is Dutch and works in Germany. Katharina is German and works in Amsterdam in a top management job in a major communication and training company. He is with Nike in a senior management job. They had a baby at the end of the program. So when she graduated in her gown with her hat on, she had little Max on her arm. The three are just a very cheerful family. They just did it the right way. They show that it is possible to manage your family and your professional business.

Let me ask you then about an example of the impact of an Executive MBA on a woman's career. Have you seen maybe a major change that happened for one of your students, because of going through the Executive MBA program?

The best example is a lady who graduated in 2003. She obtained her MBA when she was 42, a lawyer by background. She rose to the top of Deutsche Bahn, Europe's biggest transport and logistics company, member of the Board, Human Resources. She even a year or two ago fought and negotiated through one of the toughest trade union strikes Germany had lived in a long time with the train drivers association. That was very tough. In fact, she says herself that the EMBA experience has been a very transformational one for her and really gave her the kind of stature to rise up to those challenges that she then took over.