Tuck and Forté: Inspiring Women Business Leaders

Women's enrollment at top-tier business schools has topped out at 30 percent, according to a November 2002 article in BusinessWeek. So what's holding women back? In 2000, researchers at the University of Michigan partnered with Catalyst Inc. (a nonprofit research and advisory group) to find out. They launched a study to look at women's experiences with the business school environment, the career outcomes of MBA graduates, and why more women are not pursuing MBAs. The study revealed that although men and women alike report high satisfaction with the MBA experience and their careers, several factors discourage women from pursuing an MBA in the first place: the lack of female role models, the lack of encouragement by employers for women to pursue an MBA, and concerns that a business career is incompatible with work/life balance.

In direct response to these findings, the Forté Foundation-of which Tuck is a founding member-was formed in 2001. The foundation's goal is to increase the number of women business owners and leaders and to support their careers through business education and networks. Thirteen business schools (including Tuck, Yale, Wharton, and Kellogg) and seven corporations (including Dell and Goldman Sachs) are among the foundation's founding members.

These days, Sally Jaeger, Tuck's assistant dean of the MBA Program, and Constance Helfat, professor of strategy and technology at Tuck, are both actively involved with the Forté Foundation. Jaeger lends her expertise in admissions recruiting and her in-depth knowledge of the MBA student's day-to-day life, while Helfat works with the foundation's research committee.

"Several prospective female MBA students were offered a fellowship through Tuck and Forté in 2003," says Jaeger. Scholarship candidates must demonstrate exemplary leadership and a commitment to women and girls via personal mentorship or community involvement. In addition to providing financial aid, the Forté Fellows Program plans to include executive mentoring and hopes to establish an email group for all Forté scholars at various business schools. "Many female students can benefit from sharing experiences connected with such topics as networking and difficulties arising from the work/life balance," says Jaeger.

In addition, in May 2003, the Forté Foundation and the Tuck Women in Business club, MBA Program Office, and Office of Admissions held an on-campus panel presentation for female Dartmouth students. The panel of five women-four Tuck students and one alumna-talked about their business experiences in such fields as healthcare, marketing, and nonprofits. This was a great opportunity for women thinking about pursuing an MBA to ask questions of those in the midst of the program, and to hear the message that graduates with any degree-whether it's a BA in English or a BS in Geology-can succeed in business school.

The Forté Foundation's research committee, on which Professor Helfat serves, is made up of academics and businesspeople. The committee seeks to expand the pool of knowledge about what inhibits growth in women's success in business and to foster links with and among researchers in different business schools.

Helfat's own work is centered on studying male and female executives-analyzing and documenting what kinds of managerial jobs women select and are selected for. "We tend to know the data about CEOs in organizations, but we have surprisingly poor information about what other top management positions women are working in. For example, we want to know whether the numbers of women are still highest in staff rather than operating positions," she says. Professor Helfat will complete her study this summer and, in the spirit of Forté's research charter, will bring the data into the public domain, so that the mystery of what is holding women back can more quickly be solved and addressed.

For more information, visit www.fortefoundation.org.

This article appears in the Summer 2003 issue of Tuck Today.