Still, MBA programs lag behind law and medical schools at reaching gender balance in their student bodies. Law schools have more than 46% female students and medical schools nearly 50%. 

 

As the talent wars become fierce, business schools need to pick up the pace. The way to stay competitive is to respond to the marketplace and the customer’s need for flexibility and relevance. 

 

Wendy Carroll, the co-director of the MBA program at the University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI), believes that by matching its program with the province’s strategic initiatives the school will attract the best applicants, regardless of gender. “Students want more than the fundamentals,” she says. “They want the ability to bring business knowledge to the province that fits.” 

 

Last year UPEI launched an executive MBA program geared toward professional development in innovation and biotechnology. The program is designed to fit with the province’s Prosperity Plan, a long-term strategy to develop new sectors for economic growth. 

 

Jean Kimpton, for example, wanted more than the usual MBA. She couldn’t leave her job as controller of the P.E.I. Department of Innovation and Advanced Learning to attend university full-time, so she decided to enrol at UPEI. The program accommodates students with evening and weekend classes run in six-week intervals. Most of the coursework involves student projects that can be done outside of class time. “I needed the balance,” she says. “I wanted to do my MBA when it would have an impact on my career.”

 

Universities are increasingly under pressure to draw in students, and female market share is an obvious growth segment. Declining enrolment means business schools need to get creative. “There’s a difference between someone who wants be an executive and someone straight out of university,” says Kimpton. “Schools have to cater to both markets. Flexible options can attract women who might have never considered an MBA.”

 

New programs are sprouting up for recent university grads too. Dalhousie University is switching its program from the traditional two-year MBA to a corporate residency MBA. The program is designed for university graduates who want to get their graduate degree immediately after completing their undergrad. 

 

Peggy Cunningham, the director of the School of Business at Dalhousie, says these changes are necessary. While raising her daughter, she went to three different schools before completing her MBA. “Schools need to play a part in fixing the way we do business,” she says. “That includes the education we’re giving our students.”

 

Take the challenge of family planning, for example, which can be a major issue for women when it comes to deciding whether to get an MBA. Most programs require at least two years of work experience, and while the average age for a first-time mother is 28, the average age of an MBA student is 29. Schools such as Dalhousie are modifying admission requirements so students can go to graduate school at a younger age. At Dalhousie, work experience is supplemented by a required eight-month internship. 

“Women can be moms and managers,” says Penny Walsh, the director of marketing at the Confederation Centre of the Arts and an EMBA student at UPEI. “But they need a program structure to fit their needs. There’s less pressure if you have the time and support.”

 

Business is more than academics; success in the field revolves around networking, especially at the corporate board level. Yet according to Catalyst, an organization that works with businesses and professionals to expand opportunities for women, only 13% of board members of Canada’s 500 largest corporations are women. 

 

With this statistic in mind, recruiters rely on professional and community associations when seeking female candidates to fill senior-management positions and board vacancies. In fact, MBA alumni associations could be a powerful link to finding female board members. Conversely, alumni associations are also great ways for graduates to find potential employers. “The relationships that classmates form are very intense and powerful,” says Wendy Carroll, the co-director of the UPEI MBA program. “People learn what kind of skills others have and who to turn to for advice.”

 

Educators elsewhere in the country are working to attract and support women in business. The Rotman Initiative for Women in Business at the University of Toronto hosts workshops on women and leadership. McGill University developed an MBA women’s mentorship program to give MBA alumni and students an opportunity to network. Last year the University of Western Ontario in London, Ont., created ReConnect, a professional-development program for women who have been out of the workforce. Several university programs cater to female entrepreneurship, including the Centre for Women in Business at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax.

 

More women are attracted to obtaining graduate business degrees—a crucial step in developing leaders. “It’s clear to me women will play significant roles in our economy,” says UPEI’s Wendy Carroll. “With the experience, depth, and skills of our female students, they will be our next leaders in business.”