Female MBAs From Elite Schools Are More Likely to Opt Out

The recent celebration at Harvard Business School commemorating the 50th anniversary of its decision to admit women into its full-time MBA program has shined a spotlight on what women with MBAs from top schools do with their degrees. As Francesca Di Meglio reports, the answer, for many, appears to be very little. New research shows that only about a third of women with children who have MBAs from the most selective schools are still employed full-time.

Setting aside the question of why a degree from an elite institution should predispose women to "opting out," which remains a bit of a mystery, there's also the issue of whether the research tells us anything of value about today's MBA graduates. The world has changed since the women in the latest study got their MBAs (prior to April 1, 2000) and with it the multitude of career paths a new generation of business school graduates are pursuing.

It seems to me that today's female MBA graduates are less inclined to see family and work as a choice they must make, and more likely to find ways that the two can peacefully co-exist. Yes, the past may be prologue. But it doesn't have to be.

Louis Lavelle, B-Schools Editor, Bloomberg Businessweek