Raising a family is hard enough. Raising a family while also getting an MBA is something that many may say is impossible.
Globally, the number of women enrolling in MBAs is inching up – now at around 41% by some measures.
Inevitably, the number of successful MBAs who are also mothers with children is therefore also rising.
Some are high profile, like Melinda Gates, who got her MBA from Duke’s Fuqua School of Business, and Isidingo star and activist Hlubi Mboya-Arnold, who is doing an international MBA at Henley Business School Africa while raising a 2-year old.
The vast majority of MBA mothers are entrepreneurs and senior leaders in business, government and civil society.
While you might not have heard of them, they are hard at work changing the face of the economy.
More women MBAs leads to more women in leadership positions, and gender equality boosts economic growth and stability, says Gita Gopinath, first deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund, because it improves private and public sector performance, and reduces income inequality.
McKinsey research has also shown that having women in the C-suite is increasingly correlated with being in the top quartile for financial outperformance.
Jon Foster-Pedley, dean and director of Henley Business School Africa, says, “We want to produce leaders who are human, relatable as well as inspiring. At Henley Business School Africa, most of our MBA students have families with children – be they mothers or fathers – but even just maintaining a relationship while studying can be challenging. It’s irresponsible and unintelligent for MBA programmes to be designed in such a way that they damage relationships, families and children. Good educators can do better.”
Henley says it tries to do better by creating programmes that are family-friendly and flexible.
Family-friendly means including family from the start with, for example, a briefing on MBA stress points, exposure to alumni families who have successfully navigated the MBA, and assistance in building support networks. Flexible on the other hand means that “when life happens” students can take extensions or put their studies on hold for a while as they work through these challenges.
Linda van der Colff, former head of Milpark Business School, says if business schools want to increase the percentage of their women MBA students, they have to play a more enabling role.
“Women should look for a business school that provides sufficient role-modelling on how women can manage the diversity of their roles,” she says.
Since 2007, the percentage of women on the advisory boards for MBA courses has increased from 17% to 31%, according to research by the Financial Times.
The percentage of female faculty members and female students has also gone up dramatically. In recent years there has also been a push for business schools to be more responsible in terms of teaching — with a focus on purpose rather than profit maximising — and to incorporate sustainable development goals (SDGs) into the business education culture. One of the SDGs is to achieve gender equality.
Adèle Thomas, former director of Wits Business School, says it can also be important to involve employers where possible.
Employers can be supportive, whether they are paying for the degree or not, be that through mentorship programmes or enabling flexible work practices.
“Provided a person is producing the necessary outputs, the company should consider reasonable accommodation of the person’s studies,” she says.
UCT Graduate School of Business MBA graduate, Kirsten Lynch, says she can personally attest to the fact that partner support groups can also be valuable.
“While we’re studying or in our syndicate groups, our spouses and partners get together to socialise, whether it be to play golf, go out for a meal or just chat. In this way they can appreciate that there are others in the same boat, which encourages them to be supportive of what we as students are doing,” she says.
At the end of the day, we have a collective responsibility to do what we can to increase the numbers of women MBAs – mothers or not – in the workforce, says Mamodise Mailula, who heads up Henley Africa’s alumni body.
“An MBA needs to be seen as an investment not just into just one person, but into the entire family unit, as its benefits will be felt by all in the long term,” Mamodise says.
BUSINESS REPORT