The days of “no girls allowed” signs on the doors of the world’s business schools are well behind us. Women are more likely than ever to be applying to MBA programs, according to a new survey by international career and business firm QS.
The QS TopMBA.com survey found that 41 percent of visitors to the QS World MBA Tour were women. That proportion has been rising for the past five years, from 33 percent in 2005. At the same time, 40 percent of GMAT test takers are now women.
Eastern European women are now actually more likely than their male counterparts to be interested in an MBA. In that region, women represented 57 percent of the tour’s participants and 56 percent of test takers. In the U.S. and Canada, women made up 43 percent of the tour participants and 37 percent of test takers.
At the same time, QS said women are not expecting as much financial reward from a business career. The survey found that only 32 percent of women expected an annual salary of $100,000 or more after graduation, compared with 43 percent of men.
