What’s one way to pull more women into the leadership pipeline? Be a role model.

On The Glass Hammer, we shine the spotlight on successful professional women in an effort to inspire other high-achieving professional women to break the glass ceiling, and to show that there are plenty high performing women out there – even if they aren’t always highly visible. We’re committed to providing role models and peer networking for our audience of successful women.

But the need for role models begins early. Currently, female MBA enrollment rates are hovering around 30%. The leadership gender imbalance is at play even before women actually make it into the workforce. Only a small percentage of MBA instructors are female – and the lack of successful female role models in business education is one thing keeping women out of the career pipeline.

Do you want to make an impact on the next generation of female business leaders? Be a role model at the MBA level. Teach a course, give a guest lecture, or speak at a networking event. Make yourself visible!

Where are the Women Instructors?

According to a recent article in The Independent, Professor Susan Vinnicombe, director of the International Centre for Women Leaders at Cranfield University School of Management, said one reason for the lack of female MBA enrollment is a dearth of female professors. She continued, “”I’ve heard women MBA students say: ‘This course is more macho than the business world I’ve come from’.”

Elissa Ellis Sangster, Executive Director of The Forté Foundation, explained, “The reality is they just don’t see [female teachers]. We would like to see more women teaching in the MBA classroom.”

In fact, Sangster said, even seeing women portrayed in case studies can make a positive impact on female students.

In a recent Forbes article, Selena Rezvani and Sandie Taylor explained that the lack of women in teaching positions at top business schools is leaving female students with questions about their role in the workplace. They write:

“Women M.B.A.s also lack professional mentors and role models in the classroom, where female faculty represent a minority. A look at two top business schools–Columbia University and Stanford University–show percentages of female faculty at a dismal 17% and 19%, respectively, according to the 2010 Financial Times. The result is that many women leave business school without a clear sense of how to fit into corporate America.”

Successful women instructors serve as more than just proof of what women can achieve in the corporate world, but that they answer questions and provide guidance on topics that are not usually covered by a standard business school curriculum. For example, Rezvani and Taylor point to common questions like “Can I have the job of my dreams and a family?” or “How do I project a firm, credible presence so that I’m taken seriously?” The fact that these questions are cropping up even before women enter the workforce shows the critical need for successful female role modes in the classroom.

How You Can Get Involved

Sangster said that professional women are definitely needed to enrich the MBA and business school experience for women – and there’s more than one way to be a role model. She said, “Teaching a full course as an adjunct is a big commitment. But there are lots of ways to get involved.”

She advised reaching out to your own alumni network, to see if speaking opportunities are available – which could provide a connection with your own alma mater, as well as other schools in your area, if you no longer live near your university.

She also suggested talking to recruiters at your company who may have relationships with program administrators. “Student organizations are always looking for speakers, and speaking at an after class event could smooth your entree into the classroom,” she added. “And, for the students, those opportunities to see successful professional women are just as valuable.”

Have you dreamed of going back to school? Hours in the library, long conversations with intelligent professors and nothing to worry about except the deadline for that next assignment. Studying as an adult isn’t much like that, unfortunately. However, if you are unemployed with time on your hands, or want some extra skills to boost your resume, this could be the ideal time to dust off your books and get back in the classroom.

What’s your existing skill set?

“Everyone who wants to excel in business needs to understand finance and accounting,” says Dr. Linda D. Henman, President of the Henman Performance Group. “If you’ve studied HR but don’t seem to be getting anywhere, now would be a good time to pick up those classes. If you’re a finance professional, advanced training and a masters can only help.”

There has never been a better time to study finance and economics, as Jennifer Small, a graduate of Stetson University in Central Florida, found out when she studied for her executive MBA. “The classroom curriculum was naturally adjusted to reflect the challenges of this period, in addressing the tactical, economic, and ethical aspects of the economic meltdown,” she says. “I feel these valuable discussions and explorations have given me the tools to anticipate future economic calamities. I feel I’ve been provided with the means of identifying challenges and problematic trends before they transpire through the thorough examination of examples of past mistakes that led up to this recession. I strongly believe this has made me more forward-thinking in comprehending the importance and relevance of developing contingency plans to survive the economy’s many ebbs and flows.”

Small feels that studying in the context of the recession has given her new skills and a broader focus. “One of my very first classes was Economics, where recent headlines were not only explained, but heavily delved into with the professor leading lengthy discussions carried out by classmates from all areas of U.S. industry. The concept of ‘too big to fail’ was examined and scrutinised, in regards to government bailouts of certain banks and institutions. These tough economic times have shown the spotlight on business areas such as executive compensation, financial risk factors, and conflicts of interest.”

Learning new skills also has the benefit of making you more valuable to employers. “As a professor of a number of MBA schools, further education makes many professionals more viable,” says Dr. Ted Sun, Professor of Organisational Leadership at SMC University, Switzerland. “When there’s a layoff, the least valued employees are let go. If you’re in school and bringing new knowledge and skills, you’re the last to get let go. Even in this recession, I’ve had students who get promotions based on what they’re capable of doing, well before the finished the degree. Especially for females, the glass ceiling is still present. Further education is a must to compete.”

Can you support yourself?

Two (or more) years of tuition fees and lost earnings is a daunting prospect for many women. Even if you study part-time, there’s a chance that your job might not be there for you when you want to return to full-time work. Knowing you have some degree of financial security to cope with a period of education and the resulting job search will ensure you only worry about exam results and not how to pay your mortgage.

“Do you have the ability to support yourself for two years while in school and pay off the debts of student loans?” asks Blythe McGarvie, CEO of consultancy firm LIF Group, and an MBA from Kellogg. “If not, then be realistic about your education. There are scholarships available or even some companies that pay for schooling. First get into the best school, then ask the development office about financial support.”

However, on the subject of money, education can be a sound investment. “Especially during uncertain economic times, investing in an advanced professional degree program, such as an MBA, is the one positive move you can make to take control of your future,” says Beth Walker, Associate Dean for the MBA programme at the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University. “Though the economic downturn makes the decision to return to school seem more difficult, earning an MBA right now will provide a launching pad for new career opportunities when the economy rebounds. Women who earn an MBA degree with a focus in finance will be especially sought after in the marketplace. Look for a reputable program, such as the W. P. Carey MBA and others ranked highly by U.S. News & World Report.”

What will you get out of education?

An education is no guarantee of a job according to research by online outplacement service MyWorkSearch. With 47 per cent of jobseekers qualified to graduate or post-graduate level, getting a degree might not open all the doors you had hoped.

“Getting a sociology degree will not help you in the job market,” says McGarvie, who was previously CFO for a Fortune 500 company. “Why do you want to go back to school? If it is to learn new ways of thinking or skills to be more valuable in the job market, have a rough idea what you want to do after graduating. Getting a MBA or analytic training could help. Lifelong learning is the secret to success in any chosen career. However, in today’s difficult job market, many people who have skills that can not be outsourced are getting jobs.”

An executive MBA can be a very useful thing if you want to join the hordes leaving their countries to take up expat roles elsewhere. A good school can offer you a door to an international network of business colleagues – an bonus that could be worth more to you than the letters after your name, if you want the opportunity to work abroad or in a globally influential role.

Going back to school has to be an individual decision, but if you can afford it and are clear about your overall goals, it could be an excellent move. Now, where’s my library card?

After decades of stagnant female enrollment in graduate business schools, The Financial Times reports that recently the numbers have begun to climb. Female enrollment is currently at an average of 37 percent, up from 33 percent five years ago and 30 percent 10 years ago. And it’s not just a U.S. phenomenon—top European business schools are reporting higher female enrollment as well.

While these numbers are still low, they can be seen as a success – the rise in enrollment follows a decade of serious efforts by non-profits, corporations, and universities to improve gender diversity at the MBA level.

But even still, there is a long way to go. Since an MBA can open many doors in the business world, why aren’t more women pursuing them? What is being done to improve these numbers?

The Missing Female MBAs – Resolving a Lingering Issue

In 2000, spurred by continuing low numbers of female MBA graduates, Catalyst and the University of Michigan Business School collaborated on Women and the MBA: Gateway to Opportunity, a report studying the experience of women in graduate business schools and their career trajectories. While 95% of women reported being satisfied with their MBA education, they cited many issues, including a lack of female role models, incompatible work/life balance for careers in business, a lack of confidence in math skills, very little encouragement by employers, the aggressive, competitive culture of business schools and—by extension—the business world, an inability to relate to individuals in case studies, and very few opportunities to interact with female faculty.

Over the past decade, top business schools have dedicated a lot of effort toward specifically recruiting women. One obstacle to graduate business school enrollment is the work experience requirement that many other graduate degrees do not have. This puts MBA pursuit squarely in the timeframe during which many women are starting a family. Some schools, like Harvard, have shortened this work experience requirement to as little as two years to attract women, as well as a younger student base. Other schools have begun offering part-time, online and self-paced schedules, as well as their full-time program, to accommodate women with family obligations.

Additionally, in response to the Catalyst/University of Michigan study, several major corporations and top business schools have come together to form The Forté Foundation, “a powerful change agent in educating and directing talented women toward leadership roles in business.” Since women comprise nearly half of the current workforce, corporations and business schools alike realized that intelligent, high-achieving women were pursuing other disciplines such as law or medicine. The Forte Foundation works to encourage women to enroll in MBA programs.

Mentoring and recruiting begin during undergraduate studies to educate women on the benefits of pursuing an MBA and to refute incorrect assumptions highlighted by the study. According to the report, many women end up leaving their careers due to a lack of flexibility for family. Women were declining to pursue an MBA because they believed it could only lead to careers in finance or consulting. Information sessions and Forte Foundation programming now stress the versatility of an MBA not only in various business careers, but in the nonprofit sector as well.

Looking Forward: What Do Enrollment Increases Mean?

Kathryn Blanchflower, PR Assistant at Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth, says, “Women have uniquely different skill sets from their male counterparts and must be acknowledged as such. Addressing the enrollment disparity between the sexes requires the acknowledgment of a paradox: There is a clear need to offer equal opportunities to both genders, while also recognizing essential differences.”

Now that more women are pursuing MBAs, what does that mean for the future of our global workforce? We have previously reported on the lack of women on corporate boards and in the executive suite, so perhaps with more women achieving MBAs those numbers will increase. Study after study shows that a balanced executive suite only benefits companies, and business schools have obviously realized that enrolling more women is essential to creating the most representative pool of qualified candidates for upper level management positions in any industry or sector. Now that business schools are bending over backwards to attract women of all ages and accommodate mothers, will the business world follow suit?

Blanchflower says, “Women tend to peak 10 years later in their working life, and close to half take time out for family. It is in the best interest of businesses to accommodate women’s needs, ensure that the corporate environment is a welcoming one, and strive to place women in positions of power and leadership.”

We have also reported on the motherhood penalty or maternal wall that is driving women from the workforce entirely. After experiencing the flexibility of the graduate school schedule, will these new women leaders carry that over into the workplace? Will our new business model show more flex-time, part-time positions, family sabbaticals, telecommuting and other innovative solutions to support and retain women with families? Only time will tell.

Build a better Executive MBA (EMBA) program, and they will come. But who benefits most—university coffers or women executives with newly minted EMBAs? EMBA programs now offer women’s support networks, clubs, and mentoring. Some even offer symposiums on work/life balance. Della Bradshaw from the Financial Times described an EMBA as the “Gucci handbag of the business school world.” Glitter and attract, they must—competition is keen. But have universities really just constructed better mousetraps for snapping up tuition?

The challenges women and men face in business are not identical, and the value they place on their MBA degrees reflect this difference. According to the 2005 MBA Alumni Perspective Survey of 2,209 graduates, including EMBAs, men are more likely than women to rate successful MBA program outcomes in terms of their increased knowledge base and their ability to score an international assignment. Women tend to look at whether they are more respected or gain more recognition at work, and if they experienced an increase in self-confidence.

After graduation, like a professional baseball player returning from spring training, an EMBA may still play the same position and, if things are going well, still be on the same team. But now they are expected to play better.

Staying in the Game

Christine Pans stayed at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Amsterdam while enrolled in her EMBA program, and she was promoted to a senior manager. She considers one of the great advantages of an EMBA to be, “You can trial different types of behavior and new ideas in a safe environment on seasoned and demanding professionals. If these approaches work, they help to grow confidence as a manager and leader.”

Jessica Wirth is Assistant Vice President and Equity Analyst at Putnam Investments. In Wharton’s EMBA program, she was able to immediately apply what she was learning. “The finance curriculum covers stuff that I do on a day-to-day basis. Now, I’m going back and relearning things. I didn’t know how much I didn’t know until I sat down in this class…I see myself becoming a better decision maker thanks to this program”.

Movin’ on up

Are women EMBAs truly seen as more promotable, and do the promotions actually follow? According to 2008 research by the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), 37% of MBA students expected a promotion following graduation, and 43% actually received a promotion while enrolled in the program. For a lucky few, EMBA program entry is like turning up the burner in a hot air balloon; the ascent is steady and thrilling.

Kathleen Corbet was a manager in an investment firm when she “recognized that to further pursue a career in finance and to advance in the management ranks of the firm, I needed to obtain an MBA.” And advance she did. While in program, she was promoted twice. Following graduation, she stepped up five times to eventually become president of Standard and Poor’s.

Who’s buying?

Off the fairway, women don’t get a handicap—on business school tuition. Women pay the same tuition as men while typically compensated less. In 2008, MBA graduates in general only saw a 23% salary increase from their pre-MBA salary. This may not be such a good leg in business where women start in the outside lane, and run the race while staring at the backs of the competition. For purely fiscal reasons, the value of an EMBA is skewed by who pays tuition.

Sponsored by Johnson & Johnson’s, Jeannie Rojas, Associate Director of Pharmaceutical Division, said that Wharton’s EMBA program “… isn’t a watered-down MBA — this is a full-time MBA program. You really have to come into the program very committed, knowing that you have to devote a lot of time to the program. It’s a rigorous program — certain things in your life will be put on hold for a few years. But it is worth it…I highly recommend this program to technical managers.”

Kristena A. Louie is a Senior Product Manager at Microsoft, and Product Marketing Engineer for Intel while in the Foster School of Business EMBA at the University of Washington. “The EMBA has equipped me with a framework for strategic thinking. Learning the ‘language of business’ has also changed the manner in which I give presentations and have conversations with colleagues and executives in my company. In my job, I directly apply business concepts learned in school on a daily basis. It is by no means an easy journey, but well worth the hard work and effort.”

Is it worth it for women in business today to go after an EMBA? Beyond measures of personal satisfaction, the key issue will continue to be that where the degree is earned is what counts most. Certainly, an EMBA must meet a woman’s individual and professional goals. But the value of the degree is also embedded in the reputation that a business school has achieved based on alumni success and the intellectual capital of its faculty.

by Pamela Weinsaft (New York City)

MBA JumpStart was created to address the lack of diversity and under-representation of minorities in the consulting and financial services industries and to “bridge the gap between minority talent entering top business schools and firms actively seeking to increase minority representation.”

The program’s founders, Elton Ndoma-Ogar and John T. Burt, both Duke MBA graduates, launched their program in 2004 as “an innovative solution for increasing minority MBA’s access to career opportunities in consulting and investment banking.” The program helps consulting and financial services firms “identify, educate and recruit minority talent at top-tier MBA programs.” According to Mr. Burt, women make up around forty percent of the program’s enrollment.

The timing couldn’t be better.

A research report released in October by Catalyst states “Securities firms are giving increasing levels of attention to workforce diversity and creating inclusive work cultures to attract and retain top talent, impact the bottom line, and court clients across geographies. With changing demographics, talent is no longer just white men, aged 25 to 40. In fact, white men represent only 17 percent of the global talent pool of people with graduate education. Furthermore, an increasing number of minority women and men are pursuing Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in business…”

Another study by the Graduate Management Admission Council, published in September, revealed that female enrollment in MBA programs is up from 57 percent last year to 65 percent this year. Women make up 65% of the applicants in part-time master’s level accounting programs, and nearly 50% of applicants in other master’s level business programs.

The GMAC report also shows that “while the average number of applications to full-time MBA programs rose by 10 percent in 2008, the average number of applications to full-time programs from women grew just 8.5 percent. The percentage of women applying to either full-time or accelerated MBA and EMBA programs has essentially been flat for the last three years.” According to the report, women also make up slightly less than a third of the applicants to part-time lockstep MBA programs (31 percent), full-time traditional MBA programs (30 percent), and full-time accelerated MBA programs (29 percent). Executive MBA program applications from men also far outnumber those from women, 77% to 23% respectively.

MBA JumpStart’s premier program is an intensive two and a half day program known as the Diversity Forum each summer, before the participants matriculate at their B-schools. According to the organization’s website, the Diversity Forum “educates participants on both the financial services and consulting industries. Selected students from top-tier MBA programs attend industry-specific workshops, are introduced to case studies, and are provided with endless opportunities for networking with corporate partner representatives and other incoming MBA students prior to matriculation.”

At the 2008 forum that was held in Chicago in July, participants from the incoming classes of the nation’s top business schools met with representatives from prestigious companies including Merrill Lynch. They developed interview and networking skills, as well as making valuable contact with potential mentors and employers.

Participants quoted on the organization’s website are enthusiastic. Nadeen Matthews, a 2007 graduate of The Wharton School said: “The weekend was incredible. I learned a tremendous amount about both banking and consulting, plus I had the opportunity to network with corporate sponsors as well as my peers. MBA JumpStart provided an invaluable forum for the start of my career search process.”

Interestingly, the article quotes five men who all decided to forgo an M.B.A. and stay with their private equity, hedge fund or banking jobs, but only one woman, Katie Shaw, who left her private equity job for Harvard Business School. The other two women quoted in the article work as recruiters for major financial institutions, but were not asked about their personal decision to pursue an MBA or not.

Some women may weigh the decision about when to go back to graduate school differently than men because they also factor in when they might want to start a family. I spoke to one woman at Harvard Business School who said that business school was the perfect time to take a rest from the crushing I-banking hours and have a baby. But, I spoke to another woman who told me that she took a pass on B-school because she planned to have children later and didn’t want to be seen by employers as having taken two “breaks” early in her career. However, both of these women agreed that the networking contacts from an M.B.A. program would be very helpful to women looking to transition into the alternative investment sector.

So, the Glass Hammer wants to know, is the M.B.A. dead? Or is it still a valuable tool in the career advancement arsenal, especially when it comes from a top business school? Furthermore, do women weigh the decision to get an M.B.A. differently than men, and if so, what accounts for the discrepancy? Though private equity and hedge funds have historically been male dominated fields, does having an M.B.A. help women break into these fields or disadvantage them against their (male) competitors with more on the job experience? We want to know what you think!