The number of women enrolled in Master of Business Administration programs in the 2021 academic year has hit a record high, Fortune reported Nov. 12.
Research from Forté Foundation found that across 55 business schools, women make up around 41 percent of the incoming classes, which is an improvement from 38.5 percent last year.
Despite women making up the majority of undergraduate and graduate students in the U.S., their path toward high-paying roles falls behind that of men. MBAs are a lucrative pipeline into such high-power and well-paying roles. Gender parity in leadership is still a long way off, as less than 10 percent of S&P 500 company CEOs are women.
"There's still work to be done to get women into these key leadership roles," said Elissa Sangster, CEO of Forté Foundation. Still, she called the record-high female enrollment a "big step" in the right direction.