More than two-thirds of the students enrolled in Duquesne’s MBA programs are women. The national average is closer to one-third, U.S. News reports.
By Kaye Burnet | News Editor
Duquesne is one of only two schools in the county where women comprise two-thirds of Master of Business Administration students, according to July rankings in published in U.S. News & World Report.
The same report showed that nationwide, women make up less than a third of graduate-level business students.
Karen Donovan, associate dean of graduate programs and executive education in the Palumbo Donahue School of Business, said the business school’s faculty and staff work hard to attract women to graduate-level programs and support them once they start classes.
“Diversity in any respect is important,” Donovan said. “It increases everyone’s experience and learning.”
Duquesne has 191 part-time MBA students and 14 full-time students in the university’s sustainability MBA program, Donovan said.
Donovan said it’s important for women to study business at the graduate level because there is still a gender disparity among CEOs.
“You can see that in the top levels of business, it’s not as diverse,” Donovan said. “There’s still that gender inequity.”
According to Donovan, the number of women in business has increased “by leaps and bounds” since she earned her MBA from the University of Pittsburgh in 1988 with a class that was at least 75 percent male.
Ryan Roeder, an MBA student who will graduate in the spring, said he thinks many women have the potential to be good business leaders.
“Women can do any job as well as men,” he said.
Donovan said it’s important for women who are considering a career in business to have positive role models in the workforce and the classroom.
“Women support each other,” Donovan said. “I see it in the program all the time.”
