This week’s Sloan Women in Management Conference on ‘Innovating Through Adversity’ poses tough questions about the systemic gender inequalities that still exist in business today. Marissa Mayer of Google, Jennifer Siebel Newsom of Miss Representation, and Fredericka Whitfield of CNN will take the stage to share their insights on women’s advancement in business. Behind the scenes, a fantastic team of ambitious MBA women are organizing the conference at one of the nation’s top business schools.
But do business schools really prepare women for senior leadership roles with companies?
As a graduate of Wharton’s undergraduate program and an MBA candidate at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, I’d say no. Here’s why.
Business schools primarily think about female and male students as future employees rather than as women and men with complex lives for whom employment is a significant, but not the only, activity. If MBA programs truly want to develop principled leaders, they need to address the different sets of concerns students can expect to encounter in the classroom, as well as when they graduate and enter the workforce.
Women in MBA programs often feel like they have to“do it all,” and that the frequent trade-offs inherent in a busy work and family life (often leading to a high level of stress and anxiety) are something to be overcome, not managed. Read complete ForbesWoman blog post.
