Is it true that ambitious male MBA graduates will get better and higher-paying jobs than ambitious female MBA graduates? Sexism has been an issue since the beginning of history where men have the more powerful and dominant roles whereas the women are more passive. However in modern days most people in North America do not consider sexism as an issue and believe that women have an equal opportunity to succeed as men.
According to a Catalyst study of 1660 female MBA graduates worldwide, the women are not getting the powerful, high-paying jobs. Instead, men are assigned projects where they have more than twice the budget and three times the staff as projects run by women. In addition, women receive less profitable jobs and a smaller budget for projects, regardless if they have the same achievements or ambition as men.
Catalyst has studied on how to expand opportunities for corporate business women for the past 50 years and found that women only hold 3.8 percent of Fortune 500 CEO positions and 4 percent of Fortune 1000 CEO positions (Brady). It is indeed difficult for women to climb the corporate ladder when it is primarily a male dominated job market. Concerns with women in business are that if the woman gets married or starts a family and puts her career second. Corporations are looking for employees who put their job first and some feel more inclined to hire men over women because they know that generally men will not leave their job to start a family.
Is it fair though for companies to assume that if a woman finds a partner that she will put the partner or family first and not focus on her business career? Although a woman’s role is generalized as staying at home to take care of children and complete house tasks, it is unfair to assume that every woman is like this. Some women put their career first and some women can make a balance between their family life and their career while being just as successful as men. After all, women who have the same determination as men and who have an MBA degree can be just as equally experienced and intelligent as men. Thus, I believe that women should have a more equal chance in getting the hot jobs in the business world because women should not be judged for sexist characteristics when they have the potential to be equally or even more successful than men.
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