(EMAILWIRE.COM, January 14, 2010 ) Fort Lauderdale, FL

There are still only 13 female CEOs of major companies, up from four a few years ago. At that rate of advancement, it will take women until 2096 to reach parity with men.

The discovery that women have continued to gain unprecedented success in the business world, albeit the percentage of women enrolling in Business Schools having stagnated at 30% since the late 80s can be termed in no better way than – mind boggling.

The Forté Foundation came into being in 2001 under sponsorship of 21 companies (which include IBM, Ernst & Young, Goldman Sachs, American Express, among others) and 37 Business Schools – among them Columbia, Harvard, MIT, Wharton, and Chicago – with only one goal: to encourage more women to acquire college degrees which are business related and particularly – the MBA.

According to Sheila Danzig, founder of Degree.com, http://www.degree.com, the premier internet portal for online study, Forté also provides interested women with avid information ranging from, how to finance their graduate business degrees, to how to sharpen their math skills if they have become rusty along the way and how to know which business school is ideal for them.

Elissa Ellis Sangster, Forté’s executive director in an interview with CNNmoney admitted that there are quite a number of people that are very successful without an MBA, but was quick to add that the degree does give an individual a better edge. “For one thing, it gives you a great network of people who are in a position to support your career in the future, and it teaches you analytical and decision-making skills that are useful in any industry, so that you have the flexibility and the nimbleness to move easily from one role to another or one industry to another.” He concluded by saying that an MBA is a life investment and is quite handy in a recession.
The studies done by the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that the more educated you are, the more your salary is compared to some high school graduate and the less your chances of ever being unemployed. The Bureau revealed that by the end of 2009 the unemployment rate was slightly above 10% but for master’s degree holders, it’s 2.4%.

There are four main reasons as to why women MBAs are noticeably less than male. First, women are concerned about balancing work, school, and home-life responsibilities if they go back to school. Second, they don’t see many role models — female MBAs who are managing to juggle the roles mentioned prior to this point. Third, women express doubts as to whether they have the quantitative background and the advanced math skills to handle MBA courses. And fourth, they aren’t getting much, if any, encouragement from their employers to get an advanced degree.
These are valid concerns and that is why Forté addresses the above issues in their forums and online networks comprising of about 40,000 business women.