Over the years women have been bridging the divide between them and their male counterparts in the business world. Now more than ever, there is hope for surpassing and not only bridging the gap.

(EMAILWIRE.COM, January 28, 2010 ) Fort Lauderdale, FL
Over the years, women have been bridging the divide between them and their male counterparts in the business world. Now more than ever, thanks to Forte Foundation, which helps women in getting MBAs and top positions in organizations, there is hope for surpassing and not only bridging the gap.
Many years back, it was believed that women were cut out to fill just but a few positions in society – non including those in the corporate world. Their roles included being: homemakers, mothers, daughters, wives and much later in life, ‘graduate’ becoming grandmothers. With the progression of days, women started breaking out of the cocoon and started competing with their male counterparts: at an equal footing almost. Women are getting empowered with not only bachelor’s college degrees but also MBAs. Although the divide is still small between men and women, it has been bridged noticeably with more and more women taking charge of executive boards.
In business school, the dust doesn’t seem like it will settle anytime soon, as the fight for an equal footing is greatly underway. Ellisa Ellis-Sangster, executive director of the Forte Foundation which strives at educating young women and network them to land business leadership positions, commented that the number of women MBAs has significantly increased as 30 – 40% of students currently working on their MBAs are women.
A part time junior at a New York based business school said that, even at the undergraduate level, students aren’t really encouraged to pursue their MBAs. Asked whether she would pursue an advanced degree, she admitted she was unsure but she knew it would give her monetary gain and leverage compared to her counterparts. “My boss has told me that most companies will just throw more money at you if you have a master’s. And as unfortunate as it is, women still do make less money overall than men do in today’s economy. So anything they can do to make extra bucks, such as getting an MBA, is probably a very smart idea,” she said.

According to Sheila Danzig, founder of Degree.com, http://www.degree.com, the premier internet portal for online study, women do have concerns (or fears) when it comes to doing an MBA. “Women find it difficult to balance between studying, raising their families and at the same time, handling their office position and responsibilities. It is challenging, but with the wonders of online MBA courses, there is hope at the end of the tunnel,” she encouraged.

Ellisa Ellis-Sangster, in a bid to win the woman’s right to MBAs believes that getting the information pertaining to the importance of getting MBAs at an early stage to women, is paramount. We aim to bring companies and schools together that are interested in having more women in MBA programs,” she says. “We want to educate young women about opportunities because the younger you can get the message out, the faster you can get them out into the world. If they find out they are interested later in life, they may not get in as successfully.”

By women getting to know of female role models who have made it in life by pursuing their MBAs, they can get inspired to do the same. Take Shelly Lazarus for instance – one of the four women who graduated with an MBA from Columbia in 1970. She is currently the CEO of Ogilvy and Mather, which is one of the largest advertisement agencies in the world which serves clients such as IBM and American Express.