17 ] September 13-14, 2014 The Weekend Australian

THE XX FACTOR

In March, MGSM launched a research initiative aimed at redressing the gender imbalance.

“Women seem to feel the time pressures and work-life conflict more acutely than men. They worry about the time an MBA would take them to complete and see it as directly competing with their time spent with children and partners. Men tend to see the MBA primarily in terms of the longer term benefits to their careers,” says Wood.

“Women are also more concerned with having to negotiate with their partners for time to study and to enjoy the networking aspects of the course. This concern exists even when women are merely planning for, but do not actually have children. Men, on the other hand, seem to assume that their partners are generally supportive without explicitly negotiating their decision.”

Wood says men and women enroll in MBAs for different reasons.

“The men we have interviewed cite career progression and more money as the reasons for their MBA study whereas women refer more to gaining confidence and learning new things.”

“Women are concerned chief y about time and finances and whether they will receive the requisite return on their investment through career advancement opportunities – something which is not always easy to see with such few women in senior business roles in Australia.”

Wood hopes the research will help inform initiatives that will make MBA study more attractive and achievable for female students.

“We are still in the very initial stages of looking at our findings but we know flexible study options have a key role to play.”

Men cite career progression and more money as the reasons for their MBA study whereas women refer more to gaining confidence and learning new things.

FAST FACTS

• The median salary for postgraduates is $75,000.
• 37,561 postgraduate degrees were awarded in 2012.
• Coursework masters are the most popular type of postgraduate degree.

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