Why business education may be key to gender parity at work

Workplace role models

We all know how important role models are in life, and it’s no different in the workplace – if you can’t see it, it’s hard to be it. Role models are particularly important for students and young professionals who are just beginning to etch out their careers. But the lack of female role models in business is still one of the main barriers to women’s career progression – they need to see how the journey to success can be made in a women’s shoes.

In ISACA’s SheLeadsTech programme 2019 report, more than half (56%) of women cite the lack of female role models as the key reason for female under-representation in the tech sector globally. The Entrepreneurs Network and Octopus Group likewise identify a lack of female role models as one of the main barriers to gender equality in entrepreneurship. In their 2019 report, ‘Future founders: Understanding the next generation of entrepreneurs’, they note that 50% of young men, aged 14-25, could name an entrepreneur they admired, but only 35% of young women of that age could do the same. And of those named, just 15% were female.

Maybe this is no surprise, because although more women are being promoted to senior levels within businesses and carving out their own enterprises, there still aren’t enough of them. McKinsey & Company and LeanIn.Org, for example, report women in the US as occupying 21% of senior manager/director posts in 2019, up from 17% in 2015.

Men still dominate the boardroom

Looking more specifically, Equilar report women holding just over a fifth (20.2%) of Russell 3000 board posts in 2019, while the ‘Spencer Stuart Perspective for 2019’ state them occupying 26% of S&P 500 board director positions. Figures fall considerably for women CEOs, for example, the Fortune 500 records women holding just 6.6% of those positions in 2019. In the UK, figures tumble again, and in 2020 women are at the helm of just 5% of FTSE (Financial Times Stock Exchange) 100 companies and 2% of FTSE 250 companies.

Shift the focus to entrepreneurship, and the forecast (at least in the US) is brighter – the gap between men and women’s Total Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA) is closing, standing at 17.7% and 13.6% respectively in 2018, according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) US 2018/19 Report. In the UK, figures aren’t as hopeful, showing a TEA rate of 10.5%  for men, compared to only 5.2% for women, notes the GEM UK 2018 Report.

Business schools must play their part

It’s clear that the number of women in senior roles is increasing, however, there’s much more work to be done. So how can progress be made? One answer could lie within business education. The US-based Forté Foundation believes that business education, along with role models, professional networks and leadership training, are vital in helping to advance women’s careers.

Since 2001, the organisation has been helping to increase women’s enrolment in business schools, advance their business careers and rebalance the workplace. Through their initiatives they have seen women’s enrolment at Forté partner Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) schools increase from 28% in 2001 to 39% in 2019.

The increase in women’s enrolment is a huge achievement, but Elissa Sangster, Forté Foundation CEO, points out business school culture and teaching haven’t kept pace and that there is still a gender imbalance in faculty, guest speakers and case papers. “With women now nearing equity on the business school campus, more eyes are focused on the types of leaders and leadership styles we are reflecting to the MBA student body,” she says. “For both men and women, it is important to see diverse leaders and leadership styles, otherwise, we aren’t preparing them for the future. We’re not giving women the aspirational goals of leadership by showcasing successful women leaders, and for men we’re not familiarising them with leadership styles different from their own.”

They applied the Symons Test to the MBA papers and then compared them to the Case Centre papers. They found that women were mentioned in 67% of Case Centre papers and 50% of MBA papers, 11% of Case Centre papers and 17% of MBA papers had a woman protagonist. And just 4% of Case Centre papers and 5% of MBA papers passed the Symons Test.

Students push for change

The push for change isn’t just coming from organisations and advocates like Forté. Interestingly, it’s also being driven by both female and male students, who regularly call on business schools to improve gender equity, explains Elissa. But while most institutions want change, making the shift is complex. “The delivery of the MBA depends on change occurring at a more micro-level requiring every faculty member, from new to tenured, to re-evaluate their curriculum, their speakers, their teaching methods, their style in generating classroom discussion, and much more,” she notes. “It’s not an easy ask, especially for faculty who have been doing this for a very long time, independently, at their pace, with very little oversight.”

Despite the challenges, many business schools are committed to change and graduating aspiring leaders that can build inclusive workplaces. “Commitment to education and student success requires us to provide inclusive learning and insight to diverse experiences,” say Taylor Professor of Organizational Behavior, Diversity & Inclusion Manager, Jacqueline Carter, and Associate Dean of Diversity & Inclusion, Judi McLean Parks. “If we do not change this narrative, we are failing both our female and male students.”

Lack of women leaders in teaching cases

The Case for Women is another organisation that is helping to drive change within business schools. Its founder Lesley Symons and her team are principally concerned with the way business leaders are depicted within teaching cases. Through their research they have shown teaching cases to be stuck in an old paradigm, having outdated leadership styles that do not reflect current workplaces. They report that cases have few female protagonists, and therefore, insufficient role models for women – the underlying message is that leaders are male, with male attributes such as ‘father figure’, ‘results driven’, ‘tough but fair’. In terms of the business schools themselves, Lesley and her team argue that they are not leading the charge, with faculty very resistant to change and conveniently re-teaching the same papers they have for decades.

Lesley was the first ever researcher to examine the gender balance of characters present in teaching cases. Her first project looked at 105 competition-winning Case Centre papers from 2009-2018. In that piece of research, she discovered 83 had a male protagonist, compared to just 12 with a female protagonist, of which only 10 were originally women (two changed their names from male to female). A man is mentioned in 103 papers, while a woman is present in 70 papers. In 47 papers, a woman is present, but she doesn’t play a role in the business. In 35 papers, women were not mentioned at all. In six papers she is the only woman.

The Symons Test

During her cases work, Lesley created the Symons Test as a tool to evaluate papers. To pass the test, the paper must:

• Have a woman in it; (encourages women to appear in more case papers)
• Who is the protagonist; (encourages women to be shown as leaders: middle, senior managers up to C-suite)
• Who speaks to another woman about the business (ensures she isn’t the only woman in the paper)

Applying this to the Case Centre papers she found, 70 have a woman, in 12 she is the leader and in four she speaks to another woman about the business.

Following that work, Lesley and her team contacted the Forté Foundation and MBA Roundtable to conduct similar work on over 600 MBA case papers from seven prominent US business schools.

Lesley led the first ever research to examine gender balance of characters present in teaching cases. Developing the Symons Test as a tool to evaluate papers.

They applied the Symons Test to the MBA papers and then compared them to the Case Centre papers. They found that women were mentioned in 67% of Case Centre papers and 50% of MBA papers, 11% of Case Centre papers and 17% of MBA papers had a woman protagonist. And just 4% of Case Centre papers and 5% of MBA papers passed the Symons Test.

Competition praised

Business schools have welcomed the Case Writing competition to address the need for more cases with women leaders. Victoria Parker, Associate Dean for Graduate Education and Faculty Administration, Peter T Paul College of Business and Economics, University of New Hampshire, US, is excited by the new opportunities the cases will offer. “This competition, and the cases it will generate, will be a great resource for business school faculty seeking to diversify the protagonists depicted in teaching cases,” she says. Cases in which women are protagonists, interact with other women, and work across a range of industries will enable faculty to both better reflect the range of roles women currently hold as well to avoid inadvertently passing along implicit biases about what roles women can hold.”

Joseph Stephens, Senior Assistant Dean & Director, Working Professional & Executive MBA Programs, The University of Texas at Austin, McCombs School of Business, US highlights the importance of the competition, noting that MBAs must be inclusive and prepare leaders for the future business environment. “As the world’s most versatile degree, an MBA should prepare all leaders from all backgrounds to navigate, problem solve, motivate, and to act in the best interests of the greater whole,” he says. “To fully represent everyone who aspires to lead in the world, this initiative provides business schools critical context for developing leaders who are not only ready for where we are, but where we’re going.”