Men want money, women want fulfilment

Maybe it doesn’t come as a surprise to many of us. Men are more ambitious in their career advancement, often wanting more money and more power than women. Women do often despise the fight that is necessary to end up in the top position and enjoy working part-time to have enough time for their families and their kids growing up instead of spending endless hours in the office.

Sure, the glass ceiling still exists, but women are also partly responsible for not ending up at an executive board level for lack of wanting it – or so it seems according to figures from a recent survey by the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC). Amidst other topics GMAC’s 2015 global Management Education Graduate Survey asked about MBA graduates’ career goals and found that women don't care as much as men about compensation, promotion and the opportunity to be in contact with executives.

61 per cent of men think that the salary is very important compared to 51 per cent of women, 44 per cent of men want promotion opportunities compared to 37 per cent of women and 11 per cent of men wish to be visible to the executive team compared to 7 per cent of women.

Instead the female students amongst the more than 3,000 surveyed students from 112 universities worldwide placed more weight on their professional development opportunities, whether the company culture suited them, a healthy work-life balance and the availability to work flexible hours.

In numbers: 51 per cent of women rated professional development important whereas only 44 per cent of men strived for the same. 46 per cent of women felt the need to fit with company culture whilst this was important to only 40 per cent of men. Work-life balance was essential to 35 per cent of women compared to only 28 per cent of men.

Interestingly enough, both men and women wanted their work to be challenging and interesting though.

Barbara Barkhausen