Rethinking The Role Of Women In Business Programmes

Several research studies indicate that women leaders and women managers are better in team management and also better in engaging, motivating and getting better team productivity in comparison to their male counterparts. The research literature also indicates that women leaders and managers have powerful observation skills and have the ability to observe and get great business insights in comparison to male managers. It is a general belief that women have abundant reserves of patience, are more empathetic, are great communicators, are better at networking and are better at engaging people. They are also great at multitasking. Also, in business, tapping into the insights of both men and women can make any product or service marketable and in turn make business more profitable. Research from McKinsey reveals that gender-diverse businesses are more likely to outperform the ones which are not gender-diverse, financially by 12 per cent to 15 per cent higher than the industry median. But yet the percentage of women in B Schools is lower when compared to the male candidates and it is time to re-think the role of women in business programmes.  

Learning Business Management using Role play – Women can add great value

Research on emotional intelligence gives a lot of insights into the abilities of women in managing a business. According to the research in emotional intelligence, women score higher than men in almost all components of such intelligence and also aspects such as empathy, managing frustration, managing stress, ability to focus and concentrate and solving interpersonal conflicts. Having roleplays as a part of the pedagogy, with real business scenarios in which women students take the roleplay, can help in bringing better insights and the learning, which can benefit all the students pursuing the management programme.

Women leadership Series

Research literature indicates that firms with women on their boards saw 42 per cent higher sales returns, a 66 per cent higher return on invested capital and a 53 per cent higher return on equity over firms that did not. Hence initiating leadership sessions by women business leaders or the alumna of the B Schools can immensely help the management programmes.

Heterogeneous Teams

In general, women are able to make bold and wise decisions as leaders; this helps make the team environment less authoritative and more cooperative, bringing a family-like feel to the team and this boosts teamwork and helps implement a new culture within the business. B Schools ask the students to create teams of their choice, in doing so the students must be asked to create teams with at least one female student and this must be given as a mandate with no exception. This can help in creating heterogeneous teams which can also help in enhancing the learning.

Talk Series by Women Entrepreneurs  

Research indicates that women-owned companies generate higher revenues than those owned by men. It also indicates that women are more effective as a leader and are better at creating jobs. A recent survey by KPMG found that women who succeed in entrepreneurship cite the same core traits—hard work, a willingness to take risks, the ability to persevere in times of crisis, and a talent for making smart hires—that have long been credited to men for their business success. With women now making up a whopping 40% of new entrepreneurs, it’s clear that more women are turning to entrepreneurship than ever before. B Schools can invite successful female entrepreneurs who can encourage students to take the entrepreneurial plunge. This can be a great initiative for bringing change in the mindset and also can increase the percentage of women entrepreneurs.

Offering a global peer group to female students

Internationalisation of higher education promotes sharing of best academic and research practices through interactions between diverse education systems, and helps in developing global citizens through mobility of students and scholars. If B Schools focus on offering a global peer group to the female students it can immensely strengthen the acumen of the students and this can be considered as a pole-vaulting move towards rethinking the role of women in business programmes