Women in MBAs and Business

Excerpt from article of Financial Times "Stepping stones to top careers" , March 4, 2007

...What is clear is that there is no simple answer as to why women are increasingly turning to MBAs, even if the increase is still only a trickle rather than a deluge. Students’ previous educational experiences, social pressures and attitudes of employers all play their part...

...What most schools do agree on, though, is that recruiters are increasingly interested in recruiting women graduates. “The holy grail is a woman with an MBA,” says a recruiter for one City of London bank...

...That said, there is still a substantial salary gap between earnings for male and female alumni. A survey conducted by the Financial Times in the autumn of 2006 of those who graduated in 2003 showed that men earned higher salaries in every sector. In finance and banking and in consulting, for example, men earned an average of $130,000. Women, by comparison, earned an average of $117,000 in finance and banking and $119,000 in consulting.*

The most constantly cited reason for the lack of women on MBAs is that the programme requires participants to have several years’ work experience and this puts them in their late 20s when they apply, when they are likely to have strong personal demands, such as starting a family...

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[bhattathiri]

In this modern world the art of Management has become a part and parcel of everyday life, be it at home, in the office or factory and in Government. In all organizations, where a group of human beings assemble for a common purpose irrespective of caste, creed, and religion, management principles come into play through the management of resources, finance and planning, priorities, policies and practice. Management is a systematic way of carrying out activities in any field of human effort. Management need to focus more on leadership skills, e.g., establishing vision and goals, communicating the vision and goals, and guiding others to accomplish them. It also assert that leadership must be more facilitative, participative and empowering in how visions and goals are established and carried out. Some people assert that this really isn't a change in the management functions, rather it's re-emphasizing certain aspects of management.

Its task is to make people capable of joint performance, to make their weaknesses irrelevant, says the Management Guru Peter Drucker. It creates harmony in working together - equilibrium in thoughts and actions, goals and achievements, plans and performance, products and markets. It resolves situations of scarcity, be they in the physical, technical or human fields, through maximum utilization with the minimum available processes to achieve the goal. Lack of management causes disorder, confusion, wastage, delay, destruction and even depression. Managing men, money and materials in the best possible way, according to circumstances and environment, is the most important and essential factor for a successful management.