ARE business schools bastions of misogyny? That would be an easy conclusion to draw if one were simply to look at the number of women students who enrol on the top MBA programmes. As the table below shows, of the MBAs that rank in our top 100 just a solitary one, the International University in Monaco, admitted more women than men in 2013.

The arguments as to why this should be are well rehearsed. MBAs, which are often taken by those in their late 20s, coincide with the point in life when many businesswomen take time out to start a family. Furthermore, the alpha-male atmosphere, which rewards those who can dominate class discussions, makes business school more appealing to, well, alpha males. What is more the traditional careers that MBAs feed—finance and consulting—are also dominated by men.

But it would be wrong to think that schools are unconcerned at this state of affairs. Some are even trying to counter it. Many provide child care, for example, or enlist female mentors. Others offer women-only scholarships or are trying to make the classroom less confrontational. But try as they might, they are not succeeding. The median percentage of females enrolled on our top-100 MBA programmes is 32%. This has barely changed in the past decade. 

It is worth outing the very worst performers. At IESE in Spain the share of women is 20%; at the University of Cape Town it is just 18%. And bottom of the pile? The Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, where just 18% of those who enrolled in 2013 were women. For a degree that tries to present itself as being at the cutting edge, it remains, in this way at least, out of touch