B-school focus on engineering students hurts gender agenda in company management

MUMBAI: Management education institutions' focus on admitting students from engineering background is hurting the gender diversity agenda in company management, ICICI Bank's Managing Director and Chief Executive Chanda Kochhar said today.

Nearly 90 per cent of admissions to business schools are from engineering colleges, which in turn have very adverse gender ratio, Kochhar said here at an event.

"You need only engineering skills for doing an MBA," Kochhar, a product of the city-based Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, wondered.

She said the number of women at her alma mater was also small and moreover many of them chose to specialise in fields like marketing. Very few chose finance, she added.

Kochhar said women have to shed inhibitions and take roles, which are generally perceived to be male-dominated ones like working on shopfloor and sales.

Companies should also do their bit and make sure they hire enough women to create better perceptions about the brand in the minds of graduates, she said.

Kochhar added that she is a strong votary of not having any reservations and letting "merit" decide the progress of a female employee.

They should also adopt humane policies and support woman employees when they decide to start families, she said.