Do women really drop out of MBA entrance tests due to mathematics?

Recently Twitter was up in flames over a poll created by Times of India (ToI).

The poll asked:

If MBA entrance exams were made less math oriented, would more women become business managers?

• Yes
• No

While the Twitterati attacked ToI, calling the poll sexist, most didn’t realise that it rose from a recent statement given by ICICI Bank managing director and CEO, Chanda Kochhar.

Kochhar said, “The MBA entrance exams are so quantitative-oriented that it keeps out more and more women from joining the MBA classes. If we were to make the entrance exams more all-rounded you could see more participation.”

 

The View

“That is a very sexist comment coming from someone who is in banking, who is doing numbers day in and day out. It was really disheartening for a banker like me as well,” says Neha Misra. Misra, an IIM Shillong passout, is currently working as a banker with a leading Indian bank.

Echoing similar views, Anita Basalingappa, Professor at MICA Ahemedabd, says, “Somehow I don’t completely agree with that statement. Now, with more and more girls getting into engineering, it completely flouts the statement. On the contrary, lot of women got into banking jobs. What does that say?”

It is no big secret, that banking sector has some of the highest number of women CEOs and women employees in the world. A quick look at the school results (Class X and XII) across India, will prove the same thing – girls outperform boys.

This clearly proves, women are NOT affected by maths or quantitative subjects.

Yet, when it comes to MBA courses, the lack of gender diversity in top B-schools is petrifying. In reality, women form a miniscule portion of MBA classrooms in India. Why is this so?

 

MBA & Gender Diversity

“In the earlier decades, very few students pursued engineering and MBA courses. The number of girls getting into higher education was even lower. Also, in the past, the entire economy was dominated by manufacturing sector, a male dominated area. Engineering courses were considered to be male bastion by society. Women ended up pursuing B.Ed, BA and so on, essentially because of the family and social structure, not because of acumen,” says Basalingappa.

But right now, a shift is taking place. With service industries increasing in the economy, non-engineers are coming forward.

“However, this shift will take time because there’s a social status allotted to medical, engineering and MBA courses. A certain social hierarchy is set which is slowly changing. In corporate world, soft skills, social sciences and humanities are gaining currency. So over a period of time, there will be a change and more women will join the ranks,” adds Basalingappa.

 

Reality Bites

In reality, many women still face a rampant discrimination within their families when it comes to pursuing higher education. While doing a story on percentage of women in leading B-schools, we came across a woman MBA student from IIM Rohtak.

“Despite being placed with a top IT firm of the country with a decent package, I had only one option after finishing my BTech degree – get married. But once I got in an IIM, my family backed off. It was either IIM or marriage. I chose IIM,” she recalls.

This is not a sole instance. Many Indian families choose to marry off girls at a younger age. “Even educated Indian families concentrate on getting girls to finish off studies quickly so that they can be married off by 23-24 years. Societal outlook, biological clock and various other reasons are given to justify this decision. A quality B-school degree isn’t part of their plans,” informed a senior officer from IIM-Bangalore, who wishes to remain anonymous.

“I have heard a lot of people saying things like ‘there were 15 girls who joined MBA but only three continued to work. The rest of them have just settled with their families.’ This is because of lack of motivation after they take a break. Lot of families do not push them to go back to work,” says Basalingappa.

 

MBA & Maths

So, do women really drop out of MBA entrance tests due to mathematics?

The answer is clearly ‘No’.

“Quant is not disheartening. I’m good at Quant and I am a banker. I don’t see why Quant should be a reason why women are not interested. Somewhere there’s a problem in the mind-set of India. In my own batch, girls faced problem with college location. Parents are not very comfortable sending girls to far off locations. There are more women MBA students in cities like Delhi or Bombay than a top B-School like IIM. It is something which will change with time. I don’t think changing the entrance exam pattern would matter at all. On the contrary, CAT authorities are trying to make the exam easier. I don’t think that has made much of a difference to female candidates,” says Mishra.

She further adds, “The father of a girl is not bothered (not all) about her education. But the father of a son is more bothered about his education because at the end of the day, he has to earn. Across the world, men are the primary caretakers. So, somewhere, the pressure of doing MBA is more on a man than on a woman. The pressure of doing well in their career and to support. But this mindset will change with time.”

Low women participation in MBA programmes is a worldwide phenomenon. In India, most B-Schools are trying to change the scenario but giving more points to gender diversity. In CAT 2015, IIMs have changed the entire exam format keeping in mind gender and academic diversity.

 

And finally, coming back to the ToI poll, 57% of the participants believe that mathematics is not the reason behind women not becoming business managers.

An aptitude for mathematics can be developed by human beings. It’s not dependant on gender factors. For more women to become successful business managers, our entire society needs to change, not entrance tests.