A 8 min read

In recent times, MBA programs enroll a higher percentage of women than ever before. Many leading full-time MBA programs are focusing on growing women representation in their applicant pools and classrooms. They are also hosting special events targeting women. For example, Harvard Business School hosts annual events where they invite women in leadership positions to discuss the challenges they face in the workplace and how to overcome them. In this article, we look at the 50 best business schools for women in 2021.

The article also covers the best business schools for women in the USA, UK, Europe, and Asia.

Here is the outline of the article:

• Best Business Schools for Women
  • Best MBA programs for Women in USA
  • Best MBA Programs for Women in Europe
  • Best MBA Programs for Women in UK
  • Best MBA Programs for Women in Asia
• Female Candidates Career Goal and Current Employment Industry 

Best Business Schools for Women

According to the GMAC Women and Business School report, 75% of women in the business school pipeline are considering an MBA program in 2020. In 2019, 39% of female students enrolled in the top MBA programs as per the Wall Street Journal.

In fact, many elite b-schools have stepped up their recruitment to target female students. For example, Michigan Business Women (BAA) student organization at Michigan Ross offers opportunities to network with alumni and provide resources to be successful. The members have access to corporate recruiting events and in-organization professional development.

Around 84% of female graduates say their professional situation is better because of their b-school degree, 73% agree that business school prepared them for leadership positions, and 66% agree that b-school offered them opportunities for quicker career advancement.

Some of the ways in which business schools are striving to move the needle on women’s application, and enrollment are:

1. Connecting Women candidates with current students and alumni to gain insight into the student experience. For example, recently Women student association (WSA) at Harvard Business School hosted Virtual Women’s Visit day for prospect female applicants to get a better sense of the MBA program and what makes HBS community so special
2. Women-specific recruitment events: According to the GMAC’s Application Trend survey, 58% of the full-time MBA programs have a special outreach focused on women applicants, including women-specific events. For example, UNC-Kenan Flagler Carolina Women in Business offers opportunities for community and career development.
3. Educating Women on MBA career possibilities: Forte foundation, an organization of major business schools, corporates, and nonprofits, inspire women to pursue leadership careers in business. Some of their MBA partners are Washington Olin, Dartmouth Tuck, Tepper CMU, HEC Paris, INSEAD, London Business school, NYU Stern, Northwestern Kellogg, Oxford, Cambridge Judge, and Schulich.
4. Scholarships: Many business schools have targeted scholarships for women. For example, Cambridge University offers The Google Anita Borg Memorial scholarship with a vision of creating gender quality in the Tech industry. Similarly, the National University of Singapore provides women-in-business scholarships to women who demonstrate solid GMAT Score, leadership capabilities, and strong undergraduate performance. Check out the List of MBA Scholarships for Indian and International Students
5. Clubs/Centers: Stanford Women Community Center provides support, space, and advising to Women’s voluntary student organizations (WVSOs). There is a wide variety of WVSOs, including service, academic, pre-professional organizations, etc. Similarly, IIM Bangalore Women in Management club encourages and develops women leaders through various events and initiatives.

In the US, schools in the Financial Times’ (FT) top 50 rankings have an average of 38% women in their MBA cohorts, while China pulls ahead with 39%. India, meanwhile, has an average of just 17%.

Let us have a look at the 50 best business schools for Women ranked based on the percentage of the female students in the class:

Ranking based on % female students	FT Ranking	Best MBA programs	Weighted Salary	Female Faculty	Female Students	Country
1	45	Shanghai University of Finance and Economics	$119,531	36%	62%	China
2	31	Fudan University School of Management	$131,041	33%	55%	China
3	35	Shanghai Jiao Tong University: Antai	$130,736	35%	51%	China
4	42	Washington University (Olin business school)	$131,207	29%	49%	US
5	3	Stanford Graduate School of Business	$222,625	23%	47%	US
6	2	The Wharton School	$211,543	25%	46%	US
7	36	Renmin University of China Business School	$120,614	35%	46%	China
8	28	Michigan (Ross)	$164,336	29%	45%	US
9	20	Oxford MBA	$156,739	21%	44%	UK
10	1	Harvard Business School	$210,110	29%	43%	US
11	10	Kellogg School of Management	$186,438	25%	43%	US
12	16	Duke (Fuqua)	$174,070	24%	43%	US
13	33	NTU Singapore	$136,365	35%	43%	Singapore
14	13	Yale School of Management	$178,829	27%	42%	US
15	15	Dartmouth Tuck	$177,819	25%	42%	US
16	34	USC (Marshall)	$158,577	34%	42%	US
17	6	MIT Sloan School of Management	$197,177	24%	41%	US
18	5	CEIBS	$185,103	27%	40%	China
19	9	Booth School of Business	$191,679	18%	40%	US
20	17	Virginia (Darden)	$170,240	29%	40%	US
21	38	Texas-Austin (McCombs)	$156,174	24%	40%	US
22	23	ESADE Business School	$140,686	37%	39%	Spain
23	41	Warwick Business School	$117,047	41%	39%	UK
24	7	Columbia Business School	$202,238	21%	38%	US
25	43	Alliance Manchester Business School	$128,745	35%	38%	UK
26	11	UC Berkeley (Haas)	$193,630	22%	37%	US
27	14	NUS	$167,070	27%	37%	Singapore
28	19	HKUST Business School	$157,025	30%	37%	China
29	21	NYU (Stern)	$166,392	27%	37%	US
30	44	Vanderbilt (Owen)	$148,039	29%	37%	US
31	32	University of Florida: Warrington	$132,250	27%	36%	US
32	18	Cambridge Judge	$162,662	20%	35%	UK
33	22	Cornell (Johnson)	$166,035	24%	35%	US
34	4	INSEAD	$181,277	20%	34%	France/Singapore
35	49	University of London	$133,679	30%	34%	UK
36	25	UCLA (Anderson)	$166,720	26%	33%	US
37	27	SDA Bocconi School of Management	$140,404	39%	33%	Italy
38	30	CMU (Tepper)	$160,128	27%	33%	US
39	39	Indiana (Kelley)	$137,049	26%	33%	US
40	47	Washington (Foster)	$143,074	35%	33%	US
41	8	HEC Paris	$164,529	20%	31%	France
42	12	IESE Business School	$151,347	29%	31%	Spain
43	46	Emory (Goizueta)	$149,532	32%	31%	US
44	50	IE Business school	$135,422	41%	31%	Spain
45	29	Georgetown (McDonough)	$154,898	29%	30%	US
46	37	UNC (Kenan-Flagler)	$147,940	33%	29%	US
47	24	IMD Business School	$156,421	19%	28%	Switzerland
48	48	CUHK Business School	$124,603	29%	24%	China
49	26	Indian Institute of Management Bangalore	$183,703	19%	23%	India
50	40	Indian Institute of Management Calcutta	$165,900	23%	11%	India

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Best MBA programs for Women in USA

If we look at the best business schools for women in USA, Washington Olin has the highest percentage of women in their MBA program (49%), followed by Stanford GSB (47%) and Wharton Business school (46%).

Best MBA programs for women in USA	Female Students
Washington University (Olin business school)	49%
Stanford Graduate School of Business	47%
The Wharton School	46%
Michigan (Ross)	45%
Harvard Business School	43%
Kellogg School of Management	43%
Duke (Fuqua)	43%
Yale School of Management	42%
Dartmouth Tuck	42%
USC (Marshall)	42%
MIT Sloan School of Management	41%
Booth School of Business	40%
Virginia (Darden)	40%
Texas-Austin (McCombs)	40%
Columbia Business School	38%
UC Berkeley (Haas)	37%
NYU (Stern)	37%
Vanderbilt (Owen)	37%
University of Florida: Warrington	36%
Cornell (Johnson)	35%
UCLA (Anderson)	33%
CMU (Tepper)	33%
Indiana (Kelley)	33%
Washington (Foster)	33%
Emory (Goizueta)	31%
Georgetown (McDonough)	30%
UNC (Kenan-Flagler)	29%

Are you planning to pursue your MBA in USA? Here are some of the articles that can help you gain more insight:

1. F 1 Student Visa for MBA in USA – Everything you need to know
2. How to get a student loan for an MBA in USA – Ajay’s Story
3. Post MBA Work Visa in the USA for international students – 3 ways to extend your stay
4. Top 10 One Year MBA Programs in USA
5. Scholarships and Financial Aid, MBA Salary in USA 

Best MBA programs for Women in Europe

Six European Business schools make it to the top 50 business schools list out of which SDA Bocconi School of Management has the highest percentage of female students (39%) in their MBA cohort, followed by ESADE Business School (37%), and IESE Business School (29%).

Best Business Schools for women in Europe	Female students
INSEAD	34%
HEC Paris	31%
IESE Business School	31%
ESADE Business School	39%
IMD Business School	28%
SDA Bocconi School of Management	33%

Are you planning to pursue your MBA in Europe? Check out Working after MBA in UK, Europe, Canada, Australia – Post MBA visa and Immigration

Best MBA programs for Women in UK

Four business schools made it to the top 50 business schools list from the United Kingdom out of which Oxford has the highest percentage of female students (44%), followed by Warwick Business School (39%), Alliance Manchester business school (38%), and Cambridge Judge (35%)

Confused between Oxford and Cambridge. Here is an article that highlights key differences between both. 

Best MBA Programs for women in UK	Female students
Cambridge Judge	35%
Oxford	44%
Warwick Business School	39%
Alliance Manchester Business School	38%

Best Business Schools for Women in Asia

When it comes to Asia, business schools in China has a majority of women MBA students as compared to the US. Shanghai University of Finance and Economics has the highest percentage of female students (62%), which surpasses the % of female students in top USA b-schools.

Two Indian business schools made it to the FT Global MBA ranking list out of which IIM Bangalore has 23% and IIM Calcutta has 11% of the female students in their MBA cohorts.

NUS MBA program and NTU MBA programs in Singapore have above 35% of female MBA students.

Here are the best business schools for women in Asia with the highest percentage of female students in the classroom:

Best MBA programs for women in Asia	Female Students
Shanghai University of Finance and Economics	62%
Fudan University School of Management	55%
Shanghai Jiao Tong University: Antai	51%
Renmin University of China Business School	46%
NTU Singapore	43%
CEIBS	40%
NUS	37%
HKUST Business School	37%
CUHK Business School	24%
Indian Institute of Management Bangalore	23%
Indian Institute of Management Calcutta	11%

Are you planning to pursue your MBA in India? Here are some of the articles that can help you gain more insight:

1. Top MBA colleges in India  
2. Business Schools Accepting GMAT Scores in India
3. What is the scope of GMAT in India?

Female Candidates Career Goal after Business School

Around 39% of the female candidates want to manage people and projects, 38% want a salary increase, 38% want to be in senior-level positions, 37% want to travel internationally, and 35% women want to change jobs after b-school.

Manage people and projects	39%
Salary increase	38%
Senior-level position	38%
Travel internationally	37%
Change Jobs	35%

 

Current Industries of employment

 

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Here is a list of best business schools in:

1. Finance
2. Marketing
3. Consulting
4. Operations
5. Business Analytics 
6. Supply Chain Management 
7. Entrepreneurship
8. Human Resource Management 

FAQs – Best Business Schools for Women