In March of the last year we critiqued on our blog the Wall Street Journal article from February 19, 2010, titled “Women MBAs Continue to Lag in Pay, Promotions.” The article argued that despite having similar educational backgrounds and experience, female MBA holders are still not getting the same pay, positions, or promotions as their male colleagues.
We mentioned that it’s a well known fact that all MBA graduatesfrom the same school start their career with the same standard salaries, and the argument that female MBA graduates start with lower salaries is not valid. Last month the Graduate Management Admission Council published some interesting statistics which confirmed our view1.
Not only were female graduates not discriminated against, but their actual post-MBA situation was even better than that of men. Employed female alumnae from the class of 2010 reported a median salary of $78,254 USD in their first position after graduation. The mean salary reported by men was only $74,820 USD.
Overall, 84% of the women in the class of 2010 were employed at the time of graduation, and 93% of them said they got the type of job they wanted. Among both the male and female graduates who had either accepted or received a job offer at graduation, women and men reported similar increases in pay over their pre-degree salary, with women reporting an average increase of 51% compared with a 54% increase among men.
The vast majority of women (96%) surveyed from the graduating classes of 2000 to 2010 would “recommended graduate business school to someone else.” An equivalent percentage of male graduates stated they would do the same. Similarly, 96% women and 95% men stated they would recommend the specific type of program they attended.
While the top three leading industries employing 2010 female graduates from all three regions were similar, the differences in percentages do offer some regional distinctions.
We hope that you will find these statistics useful and encouraging. They show that female MBAs were not discriminated against and, on average, had even better earning results than men.
1) GMAC, 2011 WOMEN and Graduate Management Education
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