For many aspiring business leaders, the best way to achieve success is to obtain an MBA degree. As everybody knows, graduates of top business schools start earning six-figure salaries no longer than three years after university.
Still, in spite of special scholarships and other ways to attract them to business schools, female MBA students are still a minority.
The gap is still there
Last year, only four out of ten applicants for full-time MBA programs were female. In 2013, it was 33%. Thus, diversity is still in early stages of becoming a must. The growth of women MBAs has not been very significant in the recent five years, FT reports.
According to Financial Times data, the average MBA tuition fee equals $100,000. If you add the additional opportunity cost (the money you lose in two years without a job), the whole figure raises up to $203,000. As women earn about 91% of male salaries on average, it’s much harder for them to save that much money to obtain a higher education. Additionally, it’s quite probable that after-MBA pay gaps are even wider: on average, women earn 86% of their male counterparts’ salaries three years after graduation.
All in all, one can safely say that women receive a lower ROI than men. Anyway, it’s necessary for women to know that their return on investment will still be high, and they are going to cover their costs for education. To know that, aspiring students have to know which business school will help them fight the unfair pay gap and give them the best tools for development.
China goes to the top of the new ranking
As the usual Financial Times Global MBA ranking does not cover the discrepancy between male and female salaries, this month they have prepared a new ranking, where business schools are rated according to their ‘woman-friendly’ qualities. The results vary a lot from the Global MBA ranking.
In the new ranking, some schools that got the middle places on the Global MBA, went to the very top. Most of these schools, like Shanghai Jiao Tong: Antai, are Chinese. According to what its graduates say, as women get richer, they show more and more interest in business. All in all, four Chinese schools got in the top-50 ranks. What do they do to become better places for women?
Despite Chinese women being encouraged by society to start a family very early, they also have equal job opportunities, which they use. There is more flexibility for women in Chinese universities.
The new FT ranking also shows which business schools help women to get better working places. The following criteria have been taken into account: absolute female salaries three years after obtaining the degree, the increase in salary, gender balance in student body and faculty, as well as the extent to which female alumni’s goals have been achieved.
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