Partnership between the Geneva EMBA and the Career Women’s Forum

Application Deadline: June 30, 2024

The Career Women’s Forum is pleased to announce the launch of a partnership with the Geneva EMBA to help promote women’s careers. This will focus on two main areas:

• a 20% discount for 3 to 4 CWF members who enroll in the Geneva EMBA program

• mentoring by the CWF for Geneva EMBA female students.

The Geneva EMBA has always enjoyed a wide diversity of nationalities among its students, both because of the richness of the Geneva socio-economic region and its natural international orientation. For years, gender diversity has also been fostered, with an average of 50% female students. But this is not enough. The reality of the numbers is clear: 40% of women in the workforce in Switzerland, 25% on boards of directors, 22% in top management, and about 10% on executive committees. There is still a long way to go to achieve diversity in companies so that responsibilities are better shared. The glass ceiling is still tough, and when it fades, it often gives way to the glass wall. This term is used to describe the fact that in companies where women manage to reach the highest positions, these are most often in less strategic departments (HR, administration, communication). In line with its motto, responsible leadership, the Geneva EMBA’s mission is to ensure the education of women who wish to join our program and to work to support the career paths of our graduates. The partnership with the Career Women’s Forum (CWF) works towards this.

The primary objective of the partnership with the Career Women’s Forum is to encourage women to benefit from the Geneva EMBA. As mentioned they have 50% female participants. But the challenge and their action go beyond the numbers.

On average every 2 years, one student gives birth during her studies. This involves combining work, studies, and motherhood, a challenge that reflects the courage of the women who live it. Geneva EMBA’s collaboration in this matter is multifaceted. Firstly human, at no time do they consider this stage of life as anything other than normal. Then, responsibility towards the class: although the students naturally tend to support each other, they make long-term thesis groups aware of planning well. Again, naming motherhood as a normality to be considered removes many symbolic obstacles, and therefore also practical ones. Lastly, through flexibility that allows, for example, to postpone certain modules to the following year and thus spread out the program according to the needs of a future or new mother.

Furthermore, experience has shown that it is predominantly women who may have the most difficulty financing their studies. Only because their employer is less inclined to help them than they would be for a man. Therefore, Geneva EMBA have decided to offer 3 to 4 places with a 20% reduction in the cost of studies for 3 to 4 women members of the CWF. That is 34,000 CHF instead of 42,500 CHF!

Geneva EMBA’s second objective through this partnership is to support the success of their graduates in their post-MBA careers. While responsible leadership is indeed their main focus, it is based on their second competitive advantage: developing the students’ self-leadership. The goal is not to lobby for the benefit of women, but to give them the means to develop their own network and career. Starting from the August 2024 intake, the CWF will therefore implement and offer mentoring actions with the Geneva EMBA’s women students, based on our expertise.

If the CWF and the Geneva EMBA quickly agreed on the objective and means of this partnership, it is gratifying to see that the press is already echoing it. See in this regard the broadcast by Radio Lac orchestrated by the Geneva Chamber of Commerce and Industry (in french).

Geneva EMBA thank the entire CWF team, particularly its president Jamila Pradère, but also Christelle Patriarca and Marianne Zutter, for their commitment to a collaboration that can only bear fruit.

So, if you are a member of the CWF, you want to progress in your career and rely on an EMBA to do so, get in touch by completing this contact form. 

Application Deadline: June 30, 2024