Asian Women Applying in Droves
Betsy with 1997's future leaders
I just got off the phone with a Bloomberg BusinessWeek reporter discussing the trend in women’s applications to business school. It has completely skyrocketed, especially in Asian countries, where the vast majority of test-takers are women. For example in China, never known to be a capitalist country, 63% or 19,000 women took the GMAT in test year 2010. I’m still trying to figure out the biggest driver — are Chinese women going to rule the world?
From these numbers, it looks like it. But my guess is that the type of women and the type of leaders modern business schools will graduate will not try to be a Master of the Universe, but in fact, someone who will be a pioneer in her field. Business schools have changed their approach to leadership so that it isn’t about being a senior manager, or having a corner office, but instead about changing the world. And lucky for us, thousands of young women around the world, particularly in developing countries, are drawn to business school programs.
I’m just starting to think this through, but if any of you have any thoughts on why numbers of women from developing countries are overwhelming the number of men from similar far-flung locales, please drop me a line at betsy@masteradmissions.com