Who Needs An M.B.A.?

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An Image Problem
The classic view of business school is a Paper Chase-style classroom full of hyper-competitive white guys in stuffed shirts. The defining 1973 movie was actually based on life at Harvard Law School, but the image of memorizing case studies, cold calling (when a professor calls on students at random) and learning by intimidation is one the B school can't seem to shake. It's also an image that may turn off a lot of women. "Many women feel that M.B.A. programs offer a very chilly climate for them," says Judith Sturnick, director of the Office of Women in Higher Education at the American Council on Education. "Women tend to look for an environment where collaboration is valued. There is a perception, often warranted, that business school isn't one of those places."

Plenty of schools still rely on the old-fashioned Paper Chase methods in at least some of their classes, but the reality of the business-school classroom today is a lot more cooperative. First-year student Joey Wat considered several schools before finally settling on Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, where women make up 32% of the student body. "Kellogg is famous for its teamwork culture," says Wat, who was working in management consulting in Hong Kong. "That appealed to me a great deal."

At Harvard, the school most often associated with a traditional atmosphere, the disciplining of six male students for offensive behavior toward women last spring inspired a fire storm of criticism of what came to be known as the school's "woman problem." In 1998 only 24% of graduates were women, among the lowest of the top schools. Harvard has taken measures, both before the harassment incident and after it, to work on its climate and reputation. In 1997 the school devoted $1 million in grants and school funds to case studies that feature women business executives. The admissions department has placed new emphasis on women's outreach in the past three years and has sponsored open houses specifically for female candidates.

But some schools are doing much better than others at luring women. The Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, boasts 38% women, among the highest in the top tier. Eight of 11 student-government officers are women, as is the school's dean, a first for a business school of its stature.

While the battle rages on to be the school with the most, and the best, female talent, the real problem may not be with the M.B.A. programs themselves. "It's not just the business-school atmosphere that we're concerned with," says Jeanne Wilt, who is overseeing the study at the University of Michigan's Business School. "It's also the decision to go into business at all."

In a series of focus groups with undergraduate women conducted in conjunction with the Michigan/Catalyst study, students were asked to describe what characteristics they associate with certain professions. Who fared the worst? Not lawyers but businesspersons, whom the women described as "greedy" and "self-interested." It's too early to draw broad conclusions from the focus groups, say the researchers, but that negative view of business is in line with the long-standing theory that "women are drawn to jobs with some kind of obvious societal utility," says Carol Hollenshead, director of the Center for the Education of Women at Michigan. "Medicine, law and, increasingly, science and engineering can all be associated with helping people in some way," Hollenshead says. "The business world may need to make a better case for how it does some social good."

Had business made such a case, it might have been able to hang on to a proven performer like Valjeanne Estes. A graduate of Duke University's Fuqua School of Business, with a master's in engineering from Georgia Tech, Estes, 36, worked in the booming telecommunications industry before heading for her M.B.A. Upon graduation from Fuqua, she interviewed with MCI and SkyTel. "But I wanted something that reflected my priorities, and I didn't see that in the corporate world," Estes says. She eventually became coordinator of a summer camp devoted to teaching girls about economic independence, putting some of her organizational know-how to work for nonprofits. "I love what I do," Estes says. "It's flexible, and I can see that I'm doing good."