Best laid plans: Gender and the MBA completion rates of GMAT registrants

Evidence suggests that while women are more likely to go to college than men, they are less likely to go to graduate school. Moreover, in fields like science and engineering, women who do pursue advanced degrees are less likely than men to complete them. This paper compares MBA completion rates for women and men who registered to take the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT). We find that female test registrants are about 30% less likely than men to complete the MBA. This difference in completion rates seems only partly due to gender disparity in family responsibilities.