All weekend, my cellphone has been buzzing and my inbox has been flooding. "I just read this NYT article!" my friends write, "what do you think? Is it all true?"
My response, in general, has been that a lot of the article is right, especially in terms of HBS's culture. There's a strong cultural focus on wealth and financial prowess, which is often possessed by men, not women. As a female social entrepreneur on campus, I was a bit of an outsider - I didn't come from finance (I still look up terms on Investopedia on a frequent basis) so I was often afraid to raise my hand in class, and I wasn't expecting a big salary upon graduation, so I didn't feel as comfortable galavanting across the world with my classmates. I heard a rumor that some of my section-mates rented a private island during spring break. I wasn't invited, of course, and even if they'd invited me, I wouldn't have been able to go.
However, when my parents asked "would you have liked to have taken part in the new initiatives?" I responded with an emphatic "NO!!" I must confess I'm grateful to have missed all these new programs. If I'd had to participate in Field III, the extra group classwork assigned on top of the basic course load, I might not have had time to do the traveling I did that helped me get Eva & Paul off the ground. I also don't think that a 90-person class section is the right venue for a discussion of sensitive issues of any kind, let alone women in the workplace.
Moreover, sitting at Eva & Paul's office in Soho a year out of HBS, I think the school's culture is just a reflection of the world of business. Unfortunately, it's still not really easy to be a woman in the workforce - there are just so many more men in business than women. It goes back generations and generations - there just haven't been as many female MBA's historically as men. And men, as honorable as they may be, see things differently - it might be hard for them to understand a company that targets women. My classmates from BaubleBar realized they had to target their VC's female to staff in order to get through the door and explain the value of their products. I'm fortunate to have a lot of support from various men in business, but sometimes conversations are just a little trickier when explaining why E&P's jeans make a woman's butt look so good - many men are surprised to learn how many women struggle with jeans shopping, whereas women almost always understand why jeans should fit better.
Challenging processes like fundraising and job hunting are just a smidge harder as a woman. I'm actually grateful that HBS was a tough environment, because it prepared me for some of the tough meetings I've had since graduation. On the other hand, I hope in the long term business can become a friendlier, more equal place as more of us women make our ways to the top. And I hope business and business schools move away from considering the highest-paying finance jobs as the most valuable spots, instead of also valuing consumer goods, consulting, tech, and entrepreneurship as worthwhile career paths. I think part of this is due to the way the schools are ranked - the career office is under pressure to keep the average graduate's salary high to justify the high cost of the school, but doesn't focus on long-term careers and happiness.
I don't think it's HBS's responsibility to fix the entire world of business. HBS students are adults, not children - they should be responsible for their own actions and be allowed to drink and travel as they please and shouldn't be so swamped with work they don't have time for the other activities that make b-school worthwhile. But I think more awareness around the extra challenges women face is always beneficial, and I applaud the HBS administration for their dedication to this issue.
