Women to Continue to Make Progress Toward Equality at Leading Business Schools

The Forté Foundation, a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to increasing gender equality in graduate business education, has released its latest report on women at the nation’s leading business schools.

The data shows that although overall enrollments in MBA programs are down, the number of women students increased in 2022. A record 17 member business schools (out of 56 members) reached at least 45 percent women enrolled in full-time MBA programs, up from 10 schools in 2021, two in 2017, and zero in 2012. Leading the way are the business schools at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where women were 50 percent or more of all enrollments. At Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Duke University in North Carolina, and Northwestern University in Illinois, women made up 48 percent of the student body.

Women made up 41 percent of all enrollments at member institutions. This is up from 31 percent a decade ago.

“It’s exciting and gratifying to see the impact of our efforts over the last two decades to close the gender parity gap in MBA programs,” said Elissa Sangster, Forté’s CEO. “More women today understand the opportunities an MBA offers and our work has helped build the pipeline of young women interested in business careers and advancing to leadership. But we can’t rest on our laurels. Every percentage gain in women’s enrollment is hard won, much like the struggle to increase women in the C-suite and on boards. Forté will continue to support women in business for as long as it takes to achieve parity in the workplace, in corner offices. and in corporate boardrooms.”

Sangster is the former director of the MBA program at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English and an MBA from Texas A&M University.