Motivated by notable figures like Sheryl Sandberg and Marissa Mayer, many women are seeking higher education to boost their careers and become key players in the business sector. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, from 2009 to 2010, women earned the majority of degrees at all education levels, receiving 57.4 percent of bachelor’s degrees and 62.6 percent of master’s degrees. Additionally, the Graduate Management Admission Council reported that 106,800 women took the GMAT in 2010-2011, a significant increase from the 89,931 women who took the MBA admissions test in 2001-2002. Over this period, the average annual growth rate for men taking the test was 0.5%, while for women it was 2.1%, more than four times higher.

These statistics indicate an increased interest among women in higher education. Judging from popular media, including Sheryl Sandberg’s new book Lean In and Warren Buffet’s statements in Fortune advocating for more female leaders in business, it appears that the nation has made strides towards increased professional empowerment for women.

However, a startling finding by Joni Hersch, a professor of law and economics at Vanderbilt University, casts some doubt on this idea. According to Hersch’s study, which is to be published in the Review of Economics in the Household, married mothers who graduate from elite institutions such as Harvard, Princeton, Yale, and their peers are significantly less likely than graduates from less selective institutions to hold a full-time job. Hersch notes that this trend is concerning because “[e]lite workplaces, like Fortune 500 companies, prefer to hire graduates of elite colleges.” In other words, if women with graduate degrees from elite institutions are opting out of the workforce, companies cannot harness their potential, and these women in turn cannot maximize their influence in their professional field.

Such unexpected results call for a further investigation of the expectations we hold for working women, the goals they set for themselves, and the realities they face in the workplace and the home.

Sources:

“Fast Facts: Degrees Conferred by Sex and Race,” NCES, 2012

“Profile of GMAT Candidates,” Graduate Management Admission Council, 2011

“Women with elite education opting out of full-time careers,” Vanderbilt University, 2013

For a complete list of sources, please view the infographic.


This infographic was originally featured on MBAPrograms.org