Closing the gender gap in the business classroom: focus on finance

Andres Ramirez*, Joan Lofgren

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Purpose: Finance is a male-dominated field of work. This study aims to understand if learning in finance follows the same pattern. Furthermore, the authors want to understand if foreign female students are subject to the same cultural norms and sorting mechanisms as their counterparts from the USA or Finland.

Design/methodology/approach: In the context of a capstone course, students of two well-known international business programs (one in the USA, the other in Finland) participate in a business simulation. The authors surveyed the students on their learning experience across different business functions. The authors collected 440 responses over five years.

Findings: A gender gap exists in learning finance. Females surveyed reported learning less (9%–15%) than males. However, foreign females reported learning more (11%–17%). Additionally, the authors find no gender gap in learning of other business functions (i.e. marketing and strategy). Foreign females seem to bypass traditional roles and sorting mechanisms.

Originality/value: To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to document the moderating effect of foreignness on the gender gap in learning.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)204-225
Number of pages22
JournalJournal of International Education in Business
Volume16
Issue number2
Early online date2 Mar 2023
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 3 Apr 2023
MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

Keywords

  • Experiential learning
  • Finance learning
  • Gender gap in finance
  • International business education
  • Self-efficacy
  • Simulations

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