The Gender Gap in Business School Faculty

A survey by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business has found that women are making progress in enrollments in business doctoral programs. And women are making inroads into entry-level faculty positions at business schools. But in the highest faculty ranks at the nation’s business schools, women make up a very small percentage of full professors at these schools.

The survey found that in the 2009-10 academic year, women made up 35.4 percent of all students in doctoral programs at the nation’s business schools. This was up from 31.7 percent five years earlier. According to the survey, women make up 29 percent of all faculty at the nation’s business schools. This is an increase from 23.6 percent a decade ago.

But women faculty members are concentrated in the lower ranks. Women make up 40 percent of the instructors and 37.6 percent of the assistant professors at U.S. business schools. Only 29 percent of associate professors are women. Less than 18 percent of all full professors at business schools are women.