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in business and management. We were surprised at the results, which suggested that the MBA (despite its reputation) improves gender equality to a greater extent than initially thought. According to the research, which surveyed 129 female and 482 male MBA alumni, the MBA has a lot to offer women when cohorts are managed well by business education providers. We show how the MBA provides an opportunity for women to effectively deploy their gender capital (defined as the value afforded to someone’s presented gender in a given context) in order to support their development of career capital (defined as the qualities, knowledge and connections an individual possesses to progress at work). Career capital, as presented by Robert DeFillippi and Michael Arthur from Suffolk University’s Sawyer Business School, Boston in their influential paper from 1994, can be developed across three different dimensions: knowing why, knowing how and knowing whom. Knowing why ‘Knowing why‘ is concerned with a person’s sense of purpose and has been associated with motivational energy and confidence, as well as a sense of self and identity. When students embark on a course such as the MBA, it’s expected that it will contribute considerably to confidence, self-belief and a sense of self. Indeed, previous commentators have already highlighted that female students tend to be transformed by the MBA more than their male colleagues. For example, in my experience, at the start of a programme students often suffer from ‘imposter syndrome’ – they don’t feel qualified and feel uncomfortable in their identity as a senior manager. By the end of the programme, many report an improved sense of self-belief and a feeling of ‘I know I can do this’.
s a professional qualification that accelerates career progression and earnings, the MBA’s main focus is to boost the career capital of its students through the development of knowledge, skills and competencies, as well as by enhancing social capital, according to 2009 research from Southampton Business School’s Yehuda Baruch. It has also long been suggested that the MBA may be a way for women to break through the ‘glass ceiling’ and help them rise through the ranks. This autumn, Henley Business School enrolled a cohort with a higher proportion of women than men for its flexible MBA, with 53 per cent women and 47 per cent male. However, traditionally, MBA classes have had a lower proportion of women taking part than in comparative professional training such as law or medicine. The masculine culture and content on these programmes have been criticised by previous commentators, with the suggestion being that it fosters masculine values and practices, silences women and ethnic minority voices and offers poor institutional support and outcomes for women. Stereotypes have compounded this – for example, the perception that males have technical ability and women are less assertive than men – and continue to contribute to a female performance gap, according to 2017 research led by Columbia University’s Aaron Wallen. A group from Henley and the University of Reading has now researched how the MBA supports women in the development of careers
28 | Ambition | FEBRUARY 2023
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