Betsy Holden was vice-president ofstrategy and new products at Kraft, a giant food company, when
she became pregnant for the second time. t4No one has ever done the job with two children,5, her male
boss worried. ctHow many children do you have?^^ Ms. Holden asked. "Two," he replied.
This double standard is only one ofthe barriers that female executives face, as recounted in "Power
Moms", a new book by Joann Lublin, a former Wall Street Journal columnist. The author focuses on
two waves of female leaders. The first group, the baby-boomers, were often the only women in upper
management at their firms. They faced a lot of pressure to be hands-on mothers, had little support from their husbands and were reluctant to ask for reduced schedules for fear ofnot seeming committed to theirjobs.
The second wave of women, born between 1974 and 1985, had female colleagues in upper management, expected (and usually received) support from their spouses, and benefited from employer perks, such as maternity leave and flexible working. This later generation has mastered the "work-life sway"
in which they move back and forth between their personal and professional lives in the course of a day, conducting a meeting before taking their children for a check-up and then returning to the office.
Only 27% ofAmerican employers offered paid parental leave in 2019. That may be up from 17% in
2016, but still leaves a lot ofmothers uncovered. Even where leave is available, many women don't take
full advantage. A survey of female tech-industry employees in 2018 found that 44% of women who had
taken maternity leave had taken off less time than their entitlement because they thought a longer break
would damage their careers. Working mothers are still overloaded.
Despite the advances made by female executives, things are even more difficult for the vast majority
of working mothers. Many work in smaller businesses, where maternity benefits and flexible hours are
less likely to be available. The author writes that "nothing is more essential to an employed mother's
professional success than reliable high-quality child care", and for many women who are not executives,
this is a constant headache.
It is good news that many more women have climbed the corporate ladder, not just in terms offairness,
but because an economy should take advantage of all its potential talent. There needs to be a lot more progress made in helping the vast majority of women to juggle their home and work lives, not least by providing affordable child care. There are many more cleaners, cooks and carers than there are chief executives.
Edieal Pinker, deputy dean of the Yale School of Management, bristles at the suggestion that the MBA, long seen as a stepping stone to corporate success, has been made less relevant by the COVID-19
crisis. The traditional two-year degree remains vital, he insists. “Do you think the problems the pandemic created for society and the economy are narrow specialised problems or complex ones that cut across sectors and disciplines?''
His words would have sounded odd a year ago. The MBA was falling out of fashion. With the global economy booming, the opportunity cost of this pricey degree (top schools charge $100,000 or
more a year) did not seem worthwhile to many. Some schools could not cover their expenses.
At first the virus looked lethal. Lectures moved online, team exercises became socially distant
and study-trips abroad were cancelled. That diminished the value of the MBA experience, which is
"greatly enhanced by the opportunity to expand and diversify one's professional network through in-person interactions", says Scott DeRue, dean of the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business.
COVID-19 restrictions hurt what Ilian Mihov, dean of INSEAD, a French school calls ''horizontal leaming”—working in teams or discussing the day's lessons over coffee.
American schools look poised for a banner 2021. After a few years of declining applications, MIT's Sloan
School of Management, Columbia Business School, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and other top American programmes now report double-digit growth. t4We enrolled the largest full-time MBA class ever," beams Madhav Rajan, dean ofthe University ofChicago Booth School ofBusiness.
MBA applications typically rise in recessions, when a weaker job market means lower forgone
salaries. But business schools deserve credit for adapting their business models一as their professors preach others to do. Many delayed the start of semesters, offered generous scholarships, waived exam requirements
and liberalised policies on deferrals. Harvard Business School allowed students it admitted to postpone
studies for one or two years. GMAC reckons that deferrals globally have shot up from about 3% to 7%.
Schools also boosted online and flexible degrees, which are surging, and integrated digital teaching
into core MBA courses. Far from being "giant killers^^, says Vijay Govindarajan of Dartmouth College's
Tuck School of Business, digital technology can help a top school "ensure its gold-plated MBA
programme shines even brighter". And to graduates' relief, recruiters are back. GMAC's survey of firms
that recruit at business schools found that 89% intended to hire MBAs in 2021, up from 77% last year.
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