As published in our Jan/Feb 2014, our second Room for Debate topic, MBA
By Treméne Triplett
Some say that a Master of Business Administration (MBA) is still the best way to senior management and upward mobility in corporate America.
Diane P. O’Connor began working at Xerox in 1977 with a master’s in chemistry and completed her MBA in 1983.
“I believe that in many cases having an MBA is a ticket to the dance,” said O’Connor. “Women have to position themselves to compete across the population. It doesn’t get you to the top of the house alone, but teaches you the breadth of business. It’s not the book learning. It’s the critical thinking, strategic thinking and application of teamwork.”
O’Connor went to night school and finished her MBA in three years; Xerox provided tuition reimbursement. “It was an enabler for me to move out of the labs,” she said. “I can see a vision of where we need to go, and I can get other people to see it. Not only do they see it, they work toward achieving it.”
Some 30 years later, O’Connor remains at Xerox and is the vice president of environment, health, safety and sustainability, after many promotions and management positions in engineering, quality, purchasing and supply chain operations. Her responsibilities today include managing employees in Europe and North America and the strategic management for health, safety and environmental sustainability for Xerox’s operations, suppliers and customer offerings.
In 2012 Forbes reported that the number of women pursuing MBAs is on the rise, and one-third of all MBA candidates are women. Many seasoned corporate women attribute it to competition. “Harvard Business School receives about 9,000 applications per year and admits 900 from the applicant pool. Forty-one percent of the 2015 class is women,” said Jim Aisner, Harvard Business School director of media and public relations.
“Rising to upper level management without an MBA? The competition would be greater,” said Sharon Owens, who retired from CenterPoint Energy as vice president of corporate community relations in 2012, after 35 years with the company. “It’s still the good ol’ boy system out there. Women are given director positions. Men get VP titles.” Although Owens did not earn an MBA, she has advised many aspiring women toward one. “If you have an opportunity to be on a job where they will pay for it, you need to try to take advantage of it,” said Owens.
A recent trend has women in business opting for workplace experience and on-the-job training to springboard their corporate careers, instead of pursuing a Master of Business Administration (MBA).
Pamela Cotton, 48, has been vice president of member services at Austin Telco Federal Credit Union for eight years. Her 2005 advancement to VP followed earlier promotions to director and assistant vice president from 1995-2005. In her current role as VP, Cotton oversees the membership department transactions for 22 credit union locations in Austin, Texas. She manages the insurance departments and legal documents review, like powers of attorney, while serving as the co-compliance officer responsible for ensuring conformity with federal regulations.
Cotton’s very accomplished career came without an MBA. She started as a part-time teller while an undergraduate, and she worked her way up. “I did not see a degree as a key to entry at the credit union or as a key for advancement,” said Cotton, who has been with the company for 26 years. “I was able to be there and prove what I was capable of. It was more about what I did on the job, and not the degree or letters that came after my name.”
Two of the top 10 women from Fortune’s 2013 “50 Most Powerful Women in Business” do not have MBAs—IBM’s chairwoman, president and CEO Virginia Rometty, ranked number one and Yahoo’s president and CEO Marissa Mayer, ranked number eight. They have climbed to the top of their respective careers, gaining impressive titles, experience and net worth.
Research by Marianne Bertrand, Claudia Goldin and Lawrence F. Katz, which was reported in “Dynamics of the Gender Gap for Young Professionals in the Corporate and Financial Sectors” (National Bureau of Economic Research, 2009), found that 15 years post-MBA, the gender gap in earnings occurred largely due to differences in career interruptions and in weekly hours worked. At the 10-year mark, women are 22 percent more likely than men to have experienced career interruptions, largely attributed to family issues, like childbirth or elder care. As a result, many have concluded that women should bypass the financial and time investment of an MBA and opt for longer hours and more challenging positions.
“It was [more than] $50,000 in 2001 to return back [to school],” said Cotton. “Why would I spend that much when it was not all of a sudden going to push me to a higher level at my job? I had already proven myself there.”
