Women in MBA: Empowering Female Leaders in the Business World

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Posted on August 8, 2023

Reasons Why Women Prefer MBA Programs

Over the years, business schools worldwide have welcomed more women to participate in the MBA courses. In the present day, more women, as compared to men, are taking admission to MBA business schools (Zenger and Folkman, 2019). This is because women want to occupy leadership positions in the best companies in the world. In the US, business schools. Women comprise 42 per cent of the US Business schools and 36 per cent of the top 10 Business schools in Europe. In management positions, women are still rare in number. As per the latest statistics report, companies that have acquired increased financial success are because of female leaders (Zenger and Folkman, 2019). An MBA program provides an opportunity for women to extend their leadership skills so that they can remain competitive in the job market. Women with their MBA degrees have better opportunities and an increased source of income.

There are a wide variety of advantages that MBA brings to women:

An MBA program offers the best career opportunities for women to build relationships with other leaders who can help them to develop their careers. This network can help them to amplify their credibility and professional visibility. As a result, this helps them exacerbate their chances of progressing to leadership positions.
MBA helps in imparting technical knowledge to develop diversity and soft skills. Female leaders cannot only develop their leadership skills, but at the same time, they can increase their soft skills. This helps in the promotion of inclusivity and diversity in the classroom (Niu and Sims, 2022). MBA allows women to work with heterogenous teams and take part in strategic evaluation of risks.
MBA program also helps in strengthening the self-confidence that is required in jobs. The powers of persuasion of women are thus increased, and with the help of their confidence, they can encounter challenges. Opportunities are provided by the MBA programs to sharpen the comprehension of one’s function as a leader and get prepared to encounter future challenges. While learning in a class community, students can also develop their career opportunities.
MBA programmes also help women in networking. Through this, women can exchange ideas with like-minded people and exercise the best practices (Niu and Sims, 2022). In other words, they can learn the ways by which they can thrive in a challenging environment. Furthermore, they can also develop their leadership and management skills.
MBA programmes enable women to widen their horizons and get their thinking restructured. Women can realise their potential and develop their leadership skills with the help of their professional and personal development. With the help of interdisciplinary collaboration, women can exchange ideas which helps them to acquire their career goals and progress much higher at the executive level.
In the present years, it is noted that there has been a sharp increase in the number of women executives getting into MBA programmes, and they cover 50 per cent of the MBA classes (Niu and Sims, 2022). Women are offered the unique opportunity to exchange ideas with like-minded people. They get to know each other and how they can exist in the challenging business environment and persist in building their management and leadership skills. Women participating in the MBA programs also help promote diversity and strengthen the chain of female leaders.
Pursuing the MBA programme brings about a change in the perspective of women. They can restructure the way they think and widen their horizons. While pursuing their studies, women get to know other women managers about leadership styles (Niu and Sims, 2022). Thus the MBA programmes enable students to change their way of thinking and understand their potential by working on unprofessional and personal development. With the help of the exchange of ideas and interdisciplinary collaboration, women acquire their career goals and accomplish their targets at the executive level.
Pursuing an MBA course gives the student an extra dose of credibility so that they can stand ahead of others when it comes to applying for the top positions in some reputed organisations. In other words, an MBA degree brings women candidates to the attention of recruiters and shows them that the students possess ambitions and skills to learn new ideas and concepts and put them to practice accordingly.
An MBA programme also helps in strategic career development while teaching students innovative methods to start a business. In addition to this, a wide range of skills are taught to the students that help them in their professional development. Particularly, female leaders like the opportunity they are provided to strengthen their leadership skills during their course (Niu and Sims, 2022). In addition, the students are exposed to various career services such as CV checks, counselling sessions and career workshops which assist them in their professional development and face challenges in the digitalised world.
MBA programmes offered to women are flexible n nature. It is noted that women face difficulty in balancing their family, job and education. The MBA courses are flexible so that they can balance their jobs and families.

Do women leaders make the workplace better?

As per psychological research, women leaders make the workplace better. When women are empowered to lead any team, they perform better. In addition to this, it becomes beneficial to everyone in the team. Across the decade, studies have shown that women leaders help increase collaboration and productivity, amplify fairness and inspire organisational dedication (Dunn-Snow, 2019). Almost 10 per cent of Fortune 500 companies are led by women leaders. Women leaders still face challenges concerning their authority in 2023, which is more faced by their male counterparts.
There are various reasons which make it evident that women leaders make the business organisations which are explained below as follows:

Female leaders demonstrate transformational leadership styles and implement whatever is best in the organisation. Besides this, they empower the employees to go along with the vision and mission of the organisation.
Women in the present day are regarded as equally competent as men. This is because women represent communion, agency and competence. Men and women are equally regarded as intelligent; however, some studies have shown that women are more intelligent than men as they prove themselves to be the best business leaders. Furthermore, compared to men, women are more compassionate and empathetic, thus qualifying to be great leaders.
In almost all groups, the presence of women helps in team collaboration. While working together in teams, women can solve problems and make informed decisions (Dunn-Snow, 2019). Furthermore, while working in teams, women show great equality, allowing the group members to remain responsive towards one another.
As compared to men, women are much more creative, compassionate and outgoing, as a result of which they qualify as great leaders. By remaining smarter and honest, women leaders lead far better than men.
When a woman is appointed to the top tiers of management, deep-rooted stereotypes in the organisation get removed (Dunn-Snow, 2019). They bring about changes in the organisation and promote a positive working culture that is free of gender biasedness. They also encourage career development programs for employees.
In the presence of women leaders, employees experience psychological safety. In addition to this, their skills are also encouraged.

What organisations can do to empower more women into leadership?

Organisations shall recognise the need for potential leaders at a much early stage while realising the necessity to bridge gender gaps in leadership roles. This can be done by allowing females to have proper leadership qualities and acquire feedback from the early years of their careers. As a result, they can develop their networks and show their responsibility to assume leadership roles and responsibilities. Mentorship programs are established to empower women in the organisation (Dunn-Snow, 2019). Women shall be provided support, career guidance, given knowledge and feedback as sponsors. It has been proven that sponsorship programs help women hone their leadership skills.
The leadership capabilities of women are boosted by attending the professional organisations of women. Women-led organisations allow employees to develop their hard and soft skills and network with their employees.
Women are changing the future of business by bringing and implementing innovation. Organisations and consumers are also getting benefited because of this. Their new approach to leadership comprises flexibility, time management, teamwork, adaptability, and conflict management. In addition to this, they promote diversity and inclusion in the organisation (Dunn-Snow, 2019). Women leaders have changed the business’s social norms, which helps break down harmful stereotypes. In many organisations, women have been successful as leaders, Ginny Rometty at IBM, Sara Davies, the founder of Crafter’s Companion, and Kanya King, the founder of MOBO awards.

Thus, women have proven to be excellent leaders as they portray excellent leadership skills infused with ethics, respect and compassion. They know how to maintain a perfect work-life balance and has excelled in proving themselves as a multitasker. Empathy enables a leader to nurture and build relationships with the employees. In this regard, women are more empathetic than men. As a result, women leaders help their subordinates to feel appreciated and improve their productivity.
Regarding communication, women are excellent communicators, capable of conveying their ideas clearly to the team. Crisis management or conflict management forms an important skill for leaders. This, women, can deal with conflicts and crises effectively. They are excellent critical thinkers, and they are capable of resolving conflicts and crises.

References

Zenger, J. and Folkman, J., 2019. Women score higher than men in most leadership skills. Harvard Business Review, 92(10), pp.86-93.
Niu, Y. and Sims, C., 2022. Women Leaders in the Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) Sector. In Chinese Women in Leadership (pp. 203-226). Cham: Springer International Publishing.
Dunn-Snow, P., 2019. How Do Women Become Leaders?. Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin, 85(4), pp.18-19.

FAQs

1. State a few advantages of the MBA programs for women.

Ans: MBA programs offer various career opportunities for women while promoting inclusivity. In addition, the MBA programs also help develop soft skills which enable women to qualify as effective leaders in future. Pursuing the MBA programme brings about a change in the perspective of women. They can restructure the way they think and broaden their horizons. It also helps in boosting their self-confidence along with their credibility.

2. Which leadership style is shown by women? What are the advantages?

Ans: Women leaders mostly show a transformational leadership style which helps bring positive outcomes to the organisation. This comprises increased commitment, trust, and loyalty from followers. This form of leadership helps in increasing the productivity and performance of the employees. Leaders following a transformational style foster creativity and innovation in the organisation.

3. Can women leaders make the workplace better?

Ans: Women leaders can make the workplace better because their leadership style helps in fostering productivity, fosters innovation, increases collaboration, promote fairness and increases the dedication of employees towards the organisation. As leaders, women believe in team collaboration and help in the removal of deep-rooted stereotypes.

4. Can organisations take any steps to empower women to become leaders?

Ans: Organisations can make women aware of their capability and potentiality. Offering leadership development programmes and mentorship programs enables the identification of the passions and strengths of women. The most important thing that the organisation can do is make the women think, act and move ahead by aligning with the organisation’s objectives.

5. Why are women regarded as better leaders as compared to men?

Ans: Women are rated better as leaders as compared to men. Women are empathetic and possess interpersonal skills such as inspiration, motivation, relationship building and collaboration. While accomplishing tasks, women do it more accurately than men, which is why they are regarded as best. Women leaders constantly practice their self-awareness and refrain from being arrogant. They have a fixed mindset, with the help of which they can easily resolve issues occurring in the organisations.

Author Bio: Mark Edmonds, a devoted proficient at Academic Assignments, is a prominent figure in delivering top-level assignment help. With a specialization in MBA assignments, he engages understudies to succeed in their examinations. Imprint’s obligation to schooling and business skills shine through his insightful substance, exemplified by his work on “Women in MBA: Empowering Female Leaders in the Business World.” He endeavours to develop future business leaders through uncommon direction and academic help.