Zoe Woods, a current Oxford 1+1 MBA student, and Forté fellow said:
‘I couldn't be more proud to be part of this cohort. It truly makes me feel like 50/50 is within reach. Saïd’s focus on diversity is one of the main reasons I chose Oxford. Gender is of course just one aspect of diversity, but I think Saïd’s focus on gender is indicative of a broader commitment to bring diverse voices into the classroom -- and you can really feel that in our cohort.
I feel so privileged to be a Said Business School Forté Fellow, and share Forté’s mission of advancing women in business. I can’t wait to work with future female applicants as they apply to Oxford, and get us closer to gender parity.
So many businesses claim that underrepresentation of women in leadership is a pipeline problem. Looking around the room at my classmates I can confirm there are a plethora of truly talented women out there ready to lead. In doing so, we need to keep challenging our default assumptions about what a leader looks like, to make way for more diverse styles of leadership.’
The school is also home to the highly successful Oxford Women in Leadership Alliance, a student run group which works to challenge conventional conceptions of women in business and cultivate the next generation of leaders by staging discussions and events. They recently hosted chef, social entrepreneur and women’s advocate Asma Khan to mark International Women’s Day.
Aside from its recording-breaking level of female participants, this year’s MBA cohort also boasted an impressive proportion of international students, with 93% of participants coming from outside of the UK, representing a total of 64 different nationalities. The candidates bring with them an average of 5 years of work experience from across 18 different industries. There are 313 students enrolled in total.
This year also marks another important milestone in our drive to support and empower women leaders throughout their career stages. This week the school welcomed the 10th cohort of the Women Transforming Leadership Programme, a course open to women in influential leadership roles.