It’s Not “Time of Life,” It’s Sexism
In addition to being an Architect, I attend one of the most prestigious business schools in the world. Among part-time MBA programs, UC Berkeley ranks 3rd according to both U.S. News [1] and Bloomberg Weekly [2].
Last night, I volunteered at a welcome dinner for the new admits. During the dinner speech, the executive director rattled off statistics about this year’s incoming class. The average GMAT score for admits this year was 700, they represent 186 different countries, they speak 43 different languages, etc. Then she said, “25% are women,” and people started cheering.
They cheered because the average for part-time MBA programs is only 15% female (overall for all types of MBA programs it’s about 35% [3]). Unacceptable.
Then they opened up the floor for questions. Someone asked about the international program, and then it went quiet. So of course I raised my hand and asked, “How do you account for the significant drop in female admits this year? Last year it was nearly 35%.”
The woman scrambled for the microphone to respond. ”Well, last year was a bit of an anomaly. Normally it is about 25% for this school, which is much higher than the nationwide average of 15% for part-time programs. We try actively to attract women to the program, but it’s just a difficult time of life thing.”
Time of life thing. She was implying that the time of one’s career when you would enter an MBA program designed for working adults (which would be, on average, age 31 and about 8 years of experience) naturally conflicts with the time of life when women begin having babies. So naturally it would be very difficult for them to get a graduate degree at that time.
Guess who those women are making babies with? Men. The men are at the time of life when they are becoming fathers, as well. Yet it is the mother who must stall or abandon her career aspirations to deal with rugrats? It is a time-of-life issue for parents, and yet it is the women who are choosing to opt out.
Why? Is it because polite women demur from declaring above-average ambitions? Is it that women are more sensible than men, so we realize that life isn’t really about climbing the corporate ladder and making lots of money? Is it that women receive lots of micro messages that our men won’t support us for three years of intense study the way that we would for our men?
I don’t know. For architects, apparently many women decline promotions because they would prefer to run their own practice in order to gain more control over their lives, according to at least one survey [4]. Since that’s what I’m doing, let me comment on that.
I contend that the reason so many women opt for starting their own firms is that we realize it’s easier than trying to advance within an established firm. As an accomplished, fast-learning, high-performing young architect who has spent four years with no mentoring and no promotions, while watching two men with similar credentials be promoted to project manager, I have now opted out of the game.
I’m tired of swallowing the condescending tone from my male bosses. I’m tired of doing my project manager’s job for him without receiving recognition. I’m tired of working for people who think it’s ok to ask a young woman if she will be wanting to step down to part-time since she just got married, even though he didn’t ask the man sitting next to her the same question when he got married. Peace out, guys. I’m blowing this taco stand.
But that’s exactly the problem! Too many ambitious, smart women opt out of the game because it’s the right choice for us, personally. What about all those we leave behind, stuck in the establishment?
That’s why I speak forcefully about these issues whenever I can. That’s why I write about them on this blog. That’s why I intend to run Boiled Architecture “out loud,” using blogs, videos, articles, and speaking engagements to show the kind of change we are affecting.
[2] http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/rankings/
[3] http://www.catalyst.org/publication/250/women-mbas
[4] http://www.bvn.com.au/pages/female_architects_have_other_designs.html
