As part of AAUW’s summer season of women’s leadership, we are hosting blog carnivals for the National Conference for College Women Student Leaders and the 2011 AAUW National Convention. As a preview to the NCCWSL blog carnival, we’ve invited schools that are exhibiting at the conference’s Graduate School Fair to blog about the programs they will be presenting to NCCWSL attendees in June.
Check out the wonderful things our exhibitors have planned for NCCWSL and the phenomenal graduate programs they offer. We’ll post more as they arrive.
- Women and the MBA, Carnegie Mellon Tepper School of Business
- “Making Connections with Women in Business,” Syracuse University Whitman School of Business
- Global voices at Thunderbird, Thunderbird School of Global Management
- “The Changing Face of the MBA,” Willamette University
- Ignite your future through Villanova University, Villanova University
- Interacting with business leaders, Rochester Institute of Technology E. Phillip Saunders College of Business
- “Find Your Edge Here,” Hofstra University
- “Women Student Leaders of Today and Tomorrow,” George Washington University Graduate School of Political Management
AAUW Dialog 
While there might be a preponderance of MBA programs at the Graduate School Fair, this is certainly not due to any influence exerted by schools, corporate America or any factors outside of the following…when we reached out to graduate programs with the Graduate School Fair opportunity, MBA programs were the most enthusiastic about taking part. These programs are aggressively trying to increase the number of women applicants and should be applauded for taking the steps necessary to not only talk the talk, but walk the walk. Additionally, a number of these programs have a very humanities-centric approach to their program and focus heavily on the social responsibilities of business.
In the DC area, I see so many young women, many of whom are interns, with multiple masters degrees in numerous fields and I hear their frustration in finding meaningful employment. An MBA can be incredibly useful in helping achieve the ultimate goals of these young women, obtaining a leadership position in an NGO or socially responsible for-profit. I hope you, and all NCCWSL attendees, keep an open mind and really listen to what these programs are saying. Some of the best schools in the nation are gathering at NCCWSL to meet and learn about the future women leaders of our country. We all need to take advantage of this opportunity.
In some ways, I find it disheartening that MBA programs have managed to show their faces more than any other kind. While a Master’s in Business Administration may be nice, the truth is, most women straight out of college are not eligible for the large majority of those programs. Furthermore, there should be more majors that focus on something more than “making money through leadership” which is what many of these programs give me the feeling of.
As someone who wants to go into a social sciences field in graduate school, its sad to constantly see social sciences overshadowed by business just because business has more money, corporate sponsors, and fundraising opportunities. I want to see more support of women started grassroots movements, more resistance based training through arts and literature, and a strong social science background to combat the forces of business from dictating the overall public’s general interests. I was excited about the fair, but it seems the usual players have used their influences to completely drive the fair in a certain direction. We shall see.