DOES AN MBA HELP WOMEN? 115

POLICY UPDATE: Does an MBA Help Women? - Career Benefits of the MBA

Ruth Simpson"

Career benefits of the MBA

lthough not the passport and guarantor A of success that it once was, the acqui- sition of an MBA can still give its graduates the edge over their non-MBA counterparts. A report published in 1992 by the Association of MBAs (AMBA) found significant improve- ments in the career progression of managers after graduation from an MBA course. The proportion in senior management nearly doubled and there was a fourfold increase in those involved in corporate strategy and planning - activities which are generally undertaken at a senior management level. A corresponding decrease in the numbers involved in administration, information tech- nology and finance suggests that an MBA may help managers to reach more central, strategic and general management positions and to move away from the more supportive or ancillary areas.

Salary levels, too, were higher for MBA graduates. The majority earned between !30,000 and €40,000. Only 7% earned less than €20,000 and 8% earned more than €70,000. However, the size of the financial premium attached to an MBA has declined over time. Those graduating between 1980 and 1985 reported an average increase in salary of nearly 40% (adjusted for inflation). By 1991 this premium had declined to just over 16%. While the value of an MBA may have declined with increased numbers - there are now 30,000 MBA graduates in the UK compared to 18,000 in 1978 - for many the investment in both time and money is still worth while. Each year over three and a half thousand students successfully gain their MBA qualification (Hay Management Consultants 1992).

So despite a certain loss of power in projecting candidates up the salary scales evidence suggests that the MBA can still provide a career boost. As an effective form of management education, however, it has been subject to some criticism - mainly on the grounds that it is too theoretical and less

effective than in-house development of skills and competences. Nevertheless, the MBA seems to be firmly rooted in the current think- ing concerning management development and management education. The majority of business schools throughout the country have now jumped on the bandwagon and have an MBA course as part of their business and management education provision. In spite of everything, the MBA is here to stay and MBA students undoubtedly expect some returns from their investment.

Does an MBA help women?

However, very little is known about whether these expectations are met equally for men and for women - in other words whether an MBA helps women as much as men, what these different expectations are and whether barriers persist to women's career progres- sion despite their qualification. Work in this field has tended to concentrate on the posi- tion of women managers generally, irrespect- ive of their MBA status, or on MBA graduates generally with little or no breakdown be- tween the sexes. Both areas of research can go some way to answer questions Concerning the experience of women MBA graduates in the labour market and the barriers that they may face.

The woman manager

For example we know from the profiles compiled of the woman manager that she is younger, lower paid, more highly educated, is likely to occupy lower levels of manage- ment and is more likely to be separated or divorced than her male counterpart (David- son 1991). She is less likely to have a back- ground in science or engineering which, research suggests, could well be a source of disadvantage in the labour market (Chapman 1989). She is confined to a smaller number of management functions and these are largely

Address for correspondence: *Ruth Simpson, Senior Lecturer in Economics, The Business School, University of North London, Stapleton House, 277-281 Holloway Iioad, London N7 8HN.

0 Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 1996,108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 lJF, UK and 238 Main Street, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA. Volume 3 Number 2 April 1996

116 GENDER, WORK AND ORGANIZATION

support areas such as administration or personnel (Coe 1992; Rycroft 1989). In terms of pay, female managers and administrators earn two-thirds of the salary of their male counterparts (Equal Opportunities 1993) with the gender gap widening as you move up the salary scales (Institute of Management and Remuneration Economics 1993).

Barriers to career progression - the men’s club

We also know that women themselves place emphasis on attitudinal factors preventing their progress up the corporate hierarchy. This includes outdated views about the role of women in society, about their capabilities, ambitions and expectations which persist in the culture of companies and in their recruit- ment and promotion procedures (Howe and MacRae 1991). More importantly, possibly, is the closing of ranks against women by men, discussed originally by Kanter (1977) and highlighted by Coe (1992) in her study of women managers. Kanter related the process of exclusion to women being numerically in the minority. Women managers are then seen as ‘tokens’ and as such are more visible than the numerically dominant men in the group - who react to the threat of entrants by closing ranks against them. The idea of an ex- clusive male network effectively preventing women’s progress up the hierarchy was sup- ported by Coe‘s study - in which a ‘Men‘s Club’ attitude emerged as a major barrier experienced by the women in her survey.

In contrast, Equal Opportunities legislation and initiatives such as Opportunity 2000 are based very much on the idea that women themselves can alter their position in the lab- our market and that if opportunities are made available and if women try hard enough inequalities in the work place can be largely eradicated. On this basis women have been exhorted to fight harder, to plan their careers more carefully, to be more assertive and to acquire the right qualifications and experience. In other words responsibility for women’s position in the labour market is placed squarely on women‘s shoulders by empha- sizing so called deficiencies in their own behaviour or attributes (Cassel and Walsh 1993).

For many women, stuck somewhere in the hierarchy of a management or professional career, it must be tempting to think that the acquisition of an extra attribute such as an MBA will go some way to overcome the bar- riers they face to career progression. As Carol Dix (1990) found in her study of women MBA

students, the desire to effect a major career change is one of the most important reasons given by women for undertaking the course. This may suggest that for many women there is a sense of dissatisfaction with their present positions - and a possible expectation that an MBA will help to change this.

Research focus

Against this background, my research has focused on the extent to which an MBA helps women in their career, the pressures they experience and whether significant barriers persist to their career progression. The target group were male and female MBA graduates who had been in the labour market for a mini- mum of two years with their qualification. For reasons of consistency, I concentrated on ex-students from part-time courses only. A total of 450 questionnaires were sent out to previous MBA students from the 12 business schools who had agreed to take part in the study. Of the 173 responses received, 123 were male and 50 were female - roughly in proportion to the breakdown between the MBA population generally.

Profile of women MBA graduates

The profile of the female MBA graduate conforms generally to previous findings on the profile of the woman manager (Davidson 1991; Scase and Coffee 1989; Coe 1992). Wom- en in the sample were on average slightly younger than the men and had a higher level of qualification. Three quarters of both men and women had a bachelors degree prior to their MBA course - although men were three time more likely to have graduated in science or engineering. At post-graduate level, however, women outstripped men with 16% of the women having a masters degree compared to only 5% of the men. Women were also more likely to have a post-graduate professional qualification such as a Post- Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) or a Diploma in Management Studies (DMS).

Marriage and family

The overwhelming majority of men in the sample were married and two-thirds had at least one dependent child. A higher propor- tion of women were single (24%) and less than a third had a dependent child. However, of those women with children the majority (87%) felt that having responsibility for a

Voltinze 3 Nutiiber 2 April 1996 Cl Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 1996

DOES A N M B A HELP WOMEN? 117

child had adversely affected their career. Only 10% of the men with children expressed the same belief. In fact nearly half of the men with children felt that having a child had not affected their career in any way.

One interesting outcome was the relatively high proportion of men who claimed to have no caring responsibility even though they had at least one dependent child living with them. One-third of men with one or more children living with them made this claim. This may reflect a narrower interpretation of the term ’caring responsibility’ or simply an attitude which sees the responsibility for child- care as ultimately their partners’ and not their own. The latter supports the view that expec- tations about gender roles in the family have not altered to any great extent and that the bur- den of domestic responsibilities still lies over- whelmingly with the woman (Lewis 1991).

MBA graduates at work

In terms of type of organization, management function and management role, women MBA graduates were more bunched than the men into a narrower range of activities and organizations. Nearly two-thirds of women were in the public sector. For nearly a half of the women in the sample the main activity of their organization was education or training.

Function

Before the MBA, women were twice as likely as men to be in support functions such as administration and personnel. Although men have a wider spread of management func- tion, there were some concentrations - in production, marketing and IT. After the MBA there is a general move for both men and women out of their respective specialist or support areas into a more generalist and hence a more senior role but the change for male graduates is greater. After the MBA the number of women in management consult- ancy and general management increased by 50%. For men, however, the figures more than doubled.

Management role

This trend was also reflected in management role with women occupying a narrower range of roles and with the effect of the MBA being more marked for men than for women. Before the MBA there were no women chief

Table 1: Salary levels

I Men Women

before now before now MBA (“%) MBA (Yo) (“/d (“4

1. UnderE15,OOO 13 2 16 4 2. 15-20,000 16 3 30 6 3. 21-25,000 27 14 34 28 4. 26-30,000 18 22 14 32 5. 31-35,000 12 20 4 18 6. 3640,000 5 13 - 4 7. 4145,000 4 3 - 4 8. OverE45,OOO 4 20 - 4

executives, director/partners or non- executive directors. Nearly half of the women classified themselves as middle managers. After the MBA there was an increase for both men and women in the numbers in senior management. However, as with management function, for women there was a 50% swing while for men the numbers more than doubled.

Salary levels

Perhaps not surprisingly, considerable pay differences were found between men and women prior to the MBA with women bunched towards the lower salary levels and with no women earning more than f35,OOO. However, what does emerge is a tendency for women to fall further behind post-MBA. Salaries improve for both men and women subsequent to the completion of their course but the change is greater for men thus widen- ing the differential. This is most noticeable at higher pay scales. One-fifth of men earned over €45,000 after the MBA - a vast improve- ment on the 4% prior to the course. However, the corresponding figure for women post- MBA is 4% from zero.

The overall picture appears to be that male MBA graduates move ahead considerably faster than women in terms of pay and that the pay gap at higher scales is wider after the completion of the course (with the interesting exception of the f4145,000 range). This con- forms to the 1993 National Management Sal- ary Survey Report referred to earlier in which the earnings gap was found to be greater at higher levels of management than at middle and lower levels.

0 Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 1996 Volume 3 Number 2 April 2996

118 GENDER, WORK A N D ORGANIZATION

Pressures Single biggest experienced pressure

Men 9’0 Women YO Men % Women ‘/o

Long hours Expectations of male colleagues/clients Expectations of female colleagues/clients Working relations with men Working relations with women Conflicting demands of home and work Childcare problems No pressures

67 64 36 24 15 18 10 26 8 22 64 54 4 4 6 4

28 24 16 14

1 4 2 8 2 6

32 34 0 0 0 0

I

Promotions

Against this sizable difference in pay, the average number of promotions subsequent to the completion of the MBA course is the same for men and for women. Both sexes average two promotions - though there is a tendency for men to have been promoted within their existing organization while women are more likely to have progressed with another organ- ization. Given that men seem to move ahead faster both in terms of salary, role and func- tion one might have expected men to have been promoted more frequently. There is little e\.idence to suggest that men start their course from a higher base in terms of man- agement level (16% of men and 19% of women describe themselves as senior managers be- fore the start of their MBA) although a wide difference exists even at this stage in salary levels. What may emerge is a tendency for male MBAs to progress on a ‘fast track’ with each promotion leading to large increases in responsibility and commensurate salary levels while women progress much more slowly with each move.

Similar pressures but different experiences

Considerable research has been done on the extra pressures that women managers face - pressures that are not necessarily shared by their male colleagues. Davidson and Cooper (1992) refer to the stress of ’overload’ that many women managers experience. Women saw the main sources of stress here as the need to work harder to prove their capabil- ities and the weight of domestic and family responsibility. A similar finding emerged from Scase and Goffee’s study of women

managers in which demands of work and home and expectations of colleagues were key pressures experienced.

On similar lines, over a half of the women MBA graduates from this study chose con- flicting demands of home and work as a key pressure they had experienced in their work- ing lives. Interestingly, nearly two-thirds of men in the sample also chose this option. In fact there is a large amount of similarity be- tween the sexes in terms of the choices made. The top pressure identified by both men and women was long hours and conflicts between work and home emerged as the single largest pressure for approximately a third of men and women alike.

On this basis then the stress of ’overload’ may not be something that is confined to women managers alone and could well be a generalized feature of managerial life. How- ever, the content and perception of this overload may differ between the sexes. From the figures, conflicting demands of home and work are experienced by a higher proportion of men (64%) than women (54%) and this will partly reflect the higher proportion of men who are married and who have children. Nev- ertheless, as discussed earlier, only 1O0% of men with children felt that having a respon- sibility for a child had adversely affected their career. The corresponding figure for women was 87%. In addition, the fact that one-third of men with children claimed to have no caring responsibility suggests that men and women’s perception and experience of ’con- flicting demands of home and work’ may differ radically from each other and that for men this source of overload may not be so great.

For men and women the primary pressure remains long hours and this undoubtedly has an impact on the feelings of conflict between work and home. A prevailing management

Voluvie 3 Niitriber 2 April 1996 0 Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 1996

DOES A N M B A HELP W O M E N ? 119

Table 3: Barriers

Barriers Single largest experienced barrier

Men Yo Women Yo Men YO Women YO

Inflexible working patterns Lack of training Insufficient education Family commitments Lack of adequate childcare Lack of personal confidence Lack of career guidance Prejudice of colleagues Social pressures ’Men‘s club’ network Sexual discrimination No barriers

19 26 12 20 2

27 26 22 4 8 0

26

12 22 8

16 12 40 20 44 8

52 22 10

6 3 2 6 1

13 10 10 1 5 0 0

2 4 2 4 2

18 2

10 2

28 0 0

culture which equates long hours with com- mitment to work or with work effectiveness is something that affects both men and women alike. Even though men’s experience of stress may well differ from women’s, what is inter- esting here is the sheer number of men who suffer the same type of overload and this highlights the costs to both men and women of demanding or inflexible work patterns in professional and managerial life.

The men’s club again

Despite the emphasis placed by both men and women on conflicting demands of work and home as a work pressure, neither per- ceived family commitments as a particularly important barrier - though proportionately more men chose this option both as a barrier experienced and as the largest single barrier.

Otherwise, considerable differences em- erged in the types of barriers experienced by men and women MBA graduates. Overall there appeared to be a larger consensus amongst the women concerning what the key barriers were as well as a tendency to identify attitudinal or external factors as opposed to more individual or ’person based’ factors like lack of training. Over a half of the women in the sample chose a men’s club network and 44% chose prejudice of colleagues as barriers they had experienced. As a more individual factor, 40% chose lack of confidence. Only 8% felt lack of education had been a problem, though a higher percentage (22%) identified a lack of training.

For men the responses were more dis- persed and more individual in nature. Of the

men, 27% chose lack of confidence, 26% chose lack of training and 26% chose lack of career guidance as barriers they had experienced in their careers. Interestingly, 8% of men also mentioned the men’s club as a barrier and 26% claimed they had experienced no barriers at all. This compares with only 10% of the women.

As the biggest single barrier, the highest proportion, 28%, of women identified the men’s club. The next most popular choice was lack of confidence. No clear pattern em- erged for the men although lack of confidence attracted the largest response with 13%.

In fact, compared with a similar question in Trudy Coe’s IM survey of women managers the men’s club network is identified by more women MBAs as both a barrier and as the single biggest barrier encountered in their career. And whereas 19% of women mana- gers in Coe’s survey thought they had en- countered no barriers, the corresponding figure from this survey was only 10%. On this basis the acquisition of an MBA may have done little to help women overcome per- ceived barriers. In a separate question, over a third of women stated that their MBA had not helped them in any way to overcome career barriers. Perhaps not surprisingly, these mainly comprised of women who had experi- enced a men’s club barrier and for whom the MBA, as a means of tackling this problem, would be largely ineffectual. On the other hand, the 12% who felt that the MBA had been ’beneficial’ in helping overcome barriers consisted mainly of women who experienced lack of confidence or lack of training as impediments to carrier progress - areas in which an MBA can have a definite effect.

0 Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 1996 Volume 3 Number 2 April 1996

120 GENDER, WORK A N D ORGANIZATION

The men’s club therefore emerges as the most significant barrier for the majority of women and, of all the barriers considered, perhaps the most resistant to a higher qualification such as an MBA.

Conclusion

Although it is difficult to attribute the changes that have occurred subsequent to graduation from an MBA course solely to the MBA itself, the careers of both men and women have improved considerably since completing the course. Both men and women have moved out of specialist or support functions into general management or into more strategic and developmental roles. There has been a large increase in numbers at senior manage- ment level. The pattern of change is broadly the same for men and women but there is a marked difference in the scale and extent of the change. Both in terms of management role and management function, men experience a greater swing in achieving senior manage- ment positions. This difference is inevitably reflected in pay. Men move more rapidly into the higher pay scales with the result that the gender gap widens as these higher levels are reached.

One interesting difference in the pattern of change is the tendency for women to move out of the traditional female areas of admin- istration and personnel into more senior posi- tions whereas for men the route starts from production, marketing and 1T. Career paths in administration and to some extent personnel often become ‘blocked off’ in that there is no clear route out of these functions into other areas. It could well be that an MBA has helped women to make this move and to transfer their skills to other more strategic or generalist roles.

On the face of it, an MBA does help women but not as much as men. One possible reason for this is women’s dual role, though the part played by family commitments is difficult to judge. Trudy Coe (1992) concluded in her re- port that the demands of the traditional fe- male role and of a management career had defeated many women. As in Coe’s study, this preliminary suney of women MBAs has found a strong emphasis on the adverse career effects of having and caring for a child. How- ever, although conflicting demands of work and family were recognized by men and wom- en MBAs as a major career pressure, neither family commitments nor lack of childcare featured as a significant barrier for women.

Attitudinal barriers and the closing of ranks against women have been identified by

research as a serious impediment to women and there appears to be little change here for women with an MBA qualification. If any- thing, women MBAs perceive more barriers to their progression than women managers generally. While a sound academic back- ground and the acquisition of certain basic management skills from such a course is important for future career development, for women this importance may fade in the face of these extra barriers which are very difficult to overcome or change.

Marshall (1984) refers to deep-seated pat- terns of culture in the organization which reflect patriarchal power relations in the outside world. The appearance of a few wom- en in senior positions does not change this structure. In fact the existence of a few token women may actually make things worse. According to Kanter (1977) token women serve to heighten differences between them and the dominant group and lead to a strong resistance by men to women entrants. The men’s club phenomena experienced by many women MBA graduates and by women man- agers generally may well support the view that men in senior positions and in the num- erical majority practice exclusionary tactics which undermine women in their climb up the corporate hierarchy. Experience of barriers by women MBAs and the relationship with the numerical gender divisions within the organization is an important area of future study and will form the next stage in my research.

It is difficult to see where women can go from here. Their hard-earned qualification has certainly had some impact on their career but male attitudes remain a serious barrier. As Geoff Hearn (1992) has pointed out: there are simply too many men in management. A macho ethos equating masculinity with strong management or long hours with commitment militates against both men and women though it is women who are the greater losers in the career stakes. Initiatives encouraging women to try harder, study further, gain more skills and confidence do help but, if the men’s club lies at the root of the problem, it may be that a fundamental change in male attitudes and behaviour will facilitate women’s career progress more than will a higher qualification such as an MBA.

References

Cassel, C. and Walsh, S. (1993) Being seen but not heard: barriers to women’s equality in the workplace. The Psychologist, 6, 110-14.

Voliirne 3 Number 2 April 1996 0 Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 1996

DOES A N M B A HELP WOMEN? 121

Chapman, T. (1989) Just the ticket? Graduate men and women in the labour market three years after leaving college. Helms Working Paper, No. 8.

Coe, T. (1992) The Key to the Mens Club. London: IM. Davidson, M. (1991) Women managers in Britain - issues for the 1990s. Women in Management Reuiew, 6,1, 5-10.

Davidson, M. and Cooper, C. (1992) Shattering the Glass Ceiling. London: Paul Chapman.

Dix, C. (1990) A Chancefor the Top - The Lives of Women Business Graduates. London: Bantham Press.

Equal Opportunities Commission. (1993) Women and Men in Britain. London: EOC.

Hay Management Consultants. (1992) MBAs: Sal- aries and Careers. London: Association of MBAs.

Hearn, J. (1992) Changing men and changing management: a review of issues and actions. Women in Management Review, 7,l.

0 Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 1996

Howe, E. and McRae, S. (1991) Women on the Board. London: Policy Studies Institute.

Institute of Management and Renumeration Economics. (1993) National Management Salaries Survey. London: IMRE.

Kanter, R. (1977) Men and Women in the Corporation. New York: Harper.

Lewis, S. (1991) Dual career families in the UK. Women in Management Review, 6,4,3-8.

Marshall, J. (1994) Women Travellers in a Male World. Chichester: Wiley and Sons.

Rycroft, T. (1989) Survey of Women Managers - Interim Report. London: BIM.

Scase, R. and Goffee, R. (1989) Reluctant Managers, Their Work and Lifestyles. London: Unwin Hyman.

Symons, G. (1992) The class ceiling is constructed over the gendered office. Women in Management Rmiew, 7,1, 18-22.

Volume 3 Number 2 April 1996