New Study Of Women At Harvard Business School: Still Not There Yet

The media is full of articles about strong and ambitious women, many of whom are attempting to break  glass ceilings in business. Can women have it all: satisfying work, significant success and balanced, happy children?  Is it that women are not "leaning in," as Sheryl Sandberg convincingly argues in her book Lean In;  does there continue to be a systemic bias towards women who seek to climb the corporate ladder; or is it a combination of both?  On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the admittance of women to Harvard Business School's MBA program, three researchers, Robin Ely, Pamela Stone and Colleen Ammerman,  conducted a study to see how things were going for high achieving women at Harvard.  Published recently in the Harvard Business Review, the comprehensive study tells us much about the reality of women in high levels of management and debunks certain myths that are floating in the media.  Briefly, the authors tell us that:

-highly educated women are not "opting out" in large numbers to have children

-the hopes and values of both genders at HBS do not differ in a significant way

-the gender gap in senior management cannot be explained by hires going part-time or taking a break to care for children

What does this tell us? Certainly that a problem still exists for women at high levels of management, and that the reasons are not necessarily what we are led to believe. The authors of the study argue that companies need to create a more equitable system for hiring and for keeping talent of both genders, and that women are not "riskier" hires just because they may want to have children someday.

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