Looking around our current MBA classes, we see a group that is mainly male dominated. Recognising the power of the women in our MBA classes, we recently set up a Women of the MBA group to connect both current students and alumni with one another, to create a community, to network and to have fun!
The issue of gender bias is widely debated and by getting together as a group we hope to further debate these issues and break through the fear and the barriers that so many women face. Psychologist Pauline Clance, coined the term “Imposter Syndrome”, after an interviewee in their research study said she “felt like an imposter, here with all these really bright people”. She suggests that it is particularly prevalent and intense among high achieving women. We, the WMBA, are high achieving women! The idea for setting up this group partly stemmed from a discussion among a few of our classmates on the Imposter Syndrome and how we can support each other within the MBA.
Groups like the WMBA encourage us to discuss these issues, get over our fears and raise awareness of gender bias. While we hope to get an official launch event with Alumni and current students off the ground soon, we have attended some external events together including IMAGE breakfast events, the Smurfit 30% Club event and more recently we had a lunch for current EMBA and FT MBA female students. Our LinkedIn group allows us to share events, articles and spark interesting online conversations.
Finally, we are conscious that we do not want to exclude all the wonderful gentleman in our classes and create a gender divide! It is even rumoured that some of the current male students refer to the WMBA as our “secret society”, so I hope this unveils some of the secrecy (we’re not actually talking about you!) and we will definitely welcome you to our future events…
Ruth Mc Avoy ~ Executive MBA