By: Chris Lewitzke
The words “Harvard Business School” immediately bring to mind respected, successful young businessmen and businesswomen studying at one of the most prestigious MBA programs in the country. We associate Harvard with the esteemed pinnacle of higher education, nearly incapable of wrongdoing. But Harvard in recent times has become worried that “sexist” would be an equally applicable description of the business school. 
For several years, Harvard Business School (HBS) has struggled with the issue that men were more successful in the classroom than women. Women were doing fine on tests, scoring at about the same rate as men, but in the area of classroom participation, which makes up 50% of grades at HBS, there was a serious disparity. Women didn’t seem to be raising their hands or speaking up in class as much as the men were. Several professors, led by Frances Frei, decided they needed to dig deeper into why there was a gender gap at a school where all students had the ability to succeed, regardless of gender. Not only were female students suffering, though, as Harvard also suffered from a dearth of female faculty, which they viewed as another issue to be addressed. So, the administration used the Harvard Business School Class of 2013 as their own personal case study.
The study, chronicled in the New York Times earlier this month, produced fairly unsurprising results. The culture of a business school like Harvard’s is dominated by former investment bankers and hedge fund managers who were immersed in the culture of Wall Street for a few years before coming back to HBS. Men who come from this Wall Street culture have adopted the extreme macho attitude it takes to succeed in such a cutthroat environment. They thrive off high-pressure situations and proving what they know, so when it comes to classroom participation, they perform very well.
On the other hand, these environments can be terrible experiences for women. When a man is aggressive and intimidates people to get what he wants, he gets called a “big-swinging dick,” a term of respect made publicly famous in Michael Lewis’ Liar’s Poker. If a woman is overly aggressive, however, she’s simply a [expletive] and nobody wants to work with her anymore; her career growth can be stunted if she doesn’t play the game like the men want her to play. Is it surprising that by the time women are successful enough to attend HBS, they are afraid to voice their opinion in class and speak their mind?
After two years of making changes, including introducing stenographers into classrooms to record exactly who said what, private reviews for female faculty members, and discussions about sexual harassment after an anonymous report was made by a student, it seems as though HBS has learned they can only be a small part of the change that needs to be made for more women to succeed in the business world.
For many women, the issue is not that they do not have the talent or skills to be CEOs or entrepreneurs, but they lack the confidence. Boys are taught from a young age to be aggressive (in the context of sports for example). That aggressiveness, after learning that it will help them score a touchdown or get more playing time, slowly turns into an instilled confidence. Confidence, of course, is a necessity for a successful businessman. Meanwhile, girls do not have that same confidence instilled in them. Even in elementary school, girls are more hesitant in expressing their opinions in a classroom setting; in fact, boys are eight times more likely to call out answers than girls. While calling out an extraordinary amount of answers may not make for the best student, the confidence it demonstrates makes for a good future businessman.
So what changes can be made to make sure future businesswomen are not drowned out by the loud, aggressive nature of the future businessmen? Many times, girls just need to be taught some of the same lessons boys are taught at a young age. Aggressiveness can get you ahead in some situations. Have confidence in your talents and abilities. If you have a great idea, make it happen. Girls do not need to strip themselves of all femininity and feel forced to act like “one of the boys,” but there are some good life lessons that could be hammered home to girls more often from a young age. As adolescents, girls get the reputation for being chatter boxes, but they still suffer from a lack of confidence speaking in front of their peers.
These bright, under-confident young girls will grow up to be the successful, but still the under-confident CEOs described above. While Harvard Business School’s efforts of evening the playing field are admirable, they are not addressing the root of the issue. From a young age, girls do not have the same support to be outspoken with their ideas and personality, and it stays with them their entire life. Men are not inherently better at business than women, but by the time students reach high school, the playing field has shifted dramatically. Confidence, more so than in almost all other professions, matters immensely in the business world and businesswomen across the nation are suffering from their lack of it.
There are reasons to be optimistic, however. As more women overcome these challenges and rise to executive positions, young girls will have positive role models to give them more confidence. Also, hopefully the business community will take note of what HBS is doing and examine their own policies and procedures. These efforts need a push from society at-large, though, to help propel women into the leadership roles they are capable of fulfilling. These efforts will take the work of the entire educational and business communities, men and women alike.
