Women And the MBA: How to have it all - the baby and the business

Women are still a minority on MBA courses. Amy McLellan finds out what is being done to redress the balance

"Going an MBA and having children are not mutually exclusive," says Alexandra Patterson, currently studying at Said Business School in Oxford. Patterson, a former business consultant, is a mother of two. "It's not easy but it is doable," she says. Yet women remain in short supply on MBA programmes. A cohort that is one-third female is judged to be doing very well on the diversity front but in too many business schools women make up less than one-fifth of the MBA study body.

The biological clock gets a lot of the blame. Quite simply, women with the right amount of work experience to do an MBA are also of an age when they may be thinking about starting a family or may already have children. Business schools aren't very family-friendly, says Dinah Bennett, senior programme tutor of Durham Business School (where 36 per cent of the MBA cohort is female), and the director of the organisation Women Into The Network.

"Many MBA programmes involve weekend study groups," says Bennett. "There needs to be more flexibility within the curriculum to take account of the fact that women still do 80 per cent of the childcare."

Bennett also believes that too many business school prospectuses promote the MBA as a "macho" programme, designed for, and predominantly attended by, ambitious males. None of the women contacted for this piece felt they were undertaking a "macho" qualification or had problems with the male-female balance. They were all thriving on the challenge of the programme and relishing being back in the classroom. So why are the proportions of women so low when women are making inroads, albeit slowly, into every section of corporate life?

One theory is that women are deterred by quantitative degree programmes, preferring instead to study subjects like people management and communications. The Lancaster University MBA, for example, sells itself as a "soft skills" MBA, with emphasis on negotiation, responsible management, leadership and marketing.

"We are interested in developing leaders, not number-crunchers," says Lancaster's programme director Malcolm Kirkup.

This appears to work, as Lancaster has attracted an almost unheard of 50/50 male/female balance in recent years (although the proportion has dropped back to 30 per cent this year). Kirkup admits there are other reasons why the gender balance has been so favourable: the campus university is good for families (the business school attracts a high number of couples), the £17,000 price tag is competitive and the emphasis on responsible management attracts people from the public sector, which employs more women.

Yet women who want to do an MBA want to do one for the same reasons as men - to add weight to the CV, plug a skills gap or change career direction - and they want to do a hard-hitting credible MBA, one that won't pigeonhole them into "female" roles.

Another theory focuses on finances. Research has shown that women have a more cautious approach to debt and it sadly remains true that pay levels for women lag behind their male counterparts.

"I do think that business schools need to incorporate this into their recruitment strategies if they want to get more women into the classroom," says Dawna Clark, of Tuck Business School (which has 32 per cent women).

There is some money out there designed to redress the shortage of women, both in MBAs and senior corporate positions. Tuck, for example, is a member of the Forté Foundation, which offers scholarship opportunities to women. Saïd Business School is the home of the new Jennifer d'Abo Memorial Scholarship, a £10,000 prize in memory of the former chief executive of the Ryman stationary chain, while London Business School has launched four Deutsche Bank Women's Scholarships with awards of £20,000 which can cover course fees.

Grace Samodal is currently studying at Said on a Booz Allen Hamilton Scholarship. The technology consultant says the money has made a big difference. "It means I don't have to worry about the finances and can focus on getting the most out of this year," she says.

Yet money alone can't explain the dearth of women on MBA programmes (men face the same financial constraints). It seems many businesswomen simply don't count the qualification as a priority.

Chey Garland, chief executive of Garlands Call Centres and the Veuve Clicquot Business Woman of the Year 2005, believes the MBA is superfluous for those who want to start their own business.

"An entrepreneur is a raw thing," says Garland, who started her business in 1980 at the age of 23. "You have a burning ambition and then just get started."

As an employer, however, Garland likes to see an MBA on the CV.

"I find that MBAs have a very processed way of thinking, with a huge appetite for research and detail," she says. "It does give you a degree of confidence in their abilities."

Lorna Collins is a director of the National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship and is herself a serial entrepreneur, having established businesses ranging from a mobile coffee shop to a multi-million dollar logging enterprise. She says that an MBA was never on her agenda. "I don't need what the classic MBA would cover," says Collins. "What I need at this point in my career is some very specific mentoring."

A number of business schools have picked up on this requirement. HEC Business School in Paris has redesigned its programme to include a very strong coaching element. The result? Its female intake has doubled from 16 per cent just over two years ago to 32 per cent. Bath Business School is about to launch a career coaching service, which it believes will be very attractive to female applicants. "Women face particular challenges in their career and will find a career coach very valuable," says Juani Swart, Bath's director of MBA studies.

This may be particularly the case for the high proportion of women MBAs who plan to use the qualification to step off the career ladder and set up their own businesses.

Bryony Thomas, a student at Bristol Business School, has invested in an MBA to gain the credentials and contacts to allow her to build a freelance marketing business, a career she believes will accommodate her desire to take career breaks for travel and children. "I've decided to build a career that fits my life, not a life that fits around my career," she says.

Too often, though, the MBA is perceived to be a qualification for those looking to climb the ladder within the straightjacket of the corporate world. Perhaps the key to getting more women into the classroom is to pitch the MBA as the entrepreneur's choice.

Mary Pyrah: 'I handed in my last assignment, then went into labour'

For Mary Pyrah, the completion of her MBA at Manchester Metropolitan University Business School was cause for a joint celebration. "I handed in my last assignment on the Friday morning and went into labour that evening," she recalls. It's an extreme example but proof that when it comes to babies and MBAs women do not face an either/or decision.

Pyrah worked in the City for 14 years but left to do an MBA when her husband relocated to the northwest. "I'd been thinking about doing an MBA for about five years but didn't do it sooner because my job involved a lot of travel. I'd reached a stage in my career where I wanted to do something that could give me more mental stimulation and equip me to move into more senior positions or start up my own business. Would I have done it if my husband had not relocated? Good question!"

Mary became pregnant while studying for her MBA, giving birth in July at the end of the second year and writing her dissertation in the following months while functioning on very little sleep. She now plans to use the qualification to help launch her own business.

Having enjoyed the challenge and experience of the MBA, she's not sure why women don't sign up in greater numbers. "When you're deciding whether or not to do an MBA, the first questions you ask yourself are 'How useful will it be?', 'Will it increase my earning power?' and 'Will I get partner support?'. It could be that men deal differently with those questions and take a leap of faith to make the investment."