Emily asked Tara Mohr:

What was the gender dynamic like in your MBA program? Did you see the same sort of playing small from the other women in your class? Curious how this relates to some of the issues that you bring up around excelling in school, as it seems like learning to lead + pressure to excel in school would be an interesting environment to study.

Tara Mohr My program was about 30% women - and that imbalance in numbers definitely impacted how many of the women felt there. I was surprised by what often felt like 1950's attitudes toward women still present in the school culture. We had the same issues in my program that have now been well-studied at Harvard Bschool and other top programs: 1) women speak up in class less and 2) women enter with similar academic credentials, but by the end of two years, men are winning most of the academic awards.

The dearth of tenured women faculty, the lack of women in case studies, and the lack of women guest speakers definitely contribute to a very male-centric dynamic, as does I think the overall dearth of women in business leadership.

The problematic good girl/good student behaviors we learn in school that I write about aren't so common in MBA programs, which, in their attempt to be practical, do a pretty good job of forcing students to improvise, generalize, and make their work visible - whereas most other classroom environments do not.

flag