Single women M.B.A.s will downplay career ambitions to preserve options on the marriage market
From the outside, female students at elite business schools often appear to have it all together. They’re smart, driven, confident, hard-working, successful, and poised to enter the business world with almost unlimited career possibilities. It’s certainly a long way from the days when women were barred from top graduate schools and college “co-eds” were suspected of pursuing higher education primarily to find husbands and earn so-called “MRS degrees.” Or, then again, is it? A recent study found that a majority of single female M.B.A. students deliberately downplayed their ambitions and avoided acting to enhance their careers if they thought that might torpedo their marriage prospects with classmates or co-workers. In two experiments last fall, researchers first asked students newly admitted to an unnamed elite M.B.A. program to answer questions about themselves and their career preferences. Their answers, they were told, would be used to help place them in summer internships, a vital stepping...