Looking to the future: Will male students underperform in the business school (too)?

Business schools play an important role in providing access to the job market, and ultimately to management positions, for people of all genders and minorities. After centuries of inequality favouring men in higher education, the trends appear to have reversed over the past decades. In the case of the UK, all the way into the 1980s three out of four students obtaining higher degrees were still men. Today, men continue to make up the majority of academic staff, are over-represented among professors and senior managers, are over-represented in governing boards, and have higher pay. However, compared to women, they now seem less likely to complete their degrees or achieve high grades. This has led to the emergence of both a popular and academic argument that males underperform in both lower and higher education. But can we trust this conclusion in the context of the business school? Is there a sex effect in the performance of business school students? That is the question examined empirically in this chapter.