HBS Sees Slow Faculty Diversity Gains - Poets&Quants

Harvard Business School’s 2017 commencement

Harvard Business School has seen only marginal growth growth in faculty diversity over the past decade, according to a report published last month by Harvard University’s Presidential Task Force on Inclusion and Belonging. The report looked at 10-year student, faculty, and staff diversity trends based on under-represented U.S. minorities, international students, and gender at 11 of the university’s professional schools, including Harvard Business School. From 2006 to 2016, the percentage of tenured or tenure-track women faculty members at HBS rose from 22% to 26%. University-wide, the rate is about 34% women.

During the same timeframe, the percentage of tenured or tenure-track under-represented minorities also climbed slightly, from 5% to 7%. Again, HBS trails the university-wide rate of 18%. For international tenured and tenure-track faculty, the rate at HBS was at 8% in 2006 and 2016, which is closer to the university’s 9% rate. And Asian-American faculty members at HBS surged from 12% in 2006 to 20% in 2016. The report did not include Asian-American rates for the entire university faculty.

Compared to Harvard’s other professional schools, HBS has a below-average percentage of women and under-represented minorities on faculty. Only the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences had fewer women faculty members in 2016, and all but three of the 11 professional schools had equal or more under-represented minority faculty members.

Source: Harvard University’s Pursuing Excellence on a Foundation of Inclusion report

“Achieving diversity and inclusion requires deliberate attention and effort, not merely the absence of intentional discrimination or ill will,” the report reads. “Those of us who hire teams, bring on new faculty, or admit students may easily fall into the habit of recruiting people who resemble ourselves — not merely in qualities we all hope to embody, such as integrity, creativity, diligence, and potential for significant intellectual development, but also in social background, cultural style, and previous life experience.”

According to the report, such hiring and acceptance practices can lead to a “resulting homogeneity,” which in turn leads to “intellectual blind spots that weaken both decision-making and scholarship.”

“It is easy to forget that our teams will be stronger if we take the time and energy to tap into the broadest spectrum of talent, rather than follow the familiar habits and procedures that replicate our own,” the report says.

HBS HAS HIGH RATES OF WOMEN FACULTY COMPARED TO PEER BUSINESS SCHOOLS

While HBS lags in diversity rates among other Harvard professional schools, it more than holds its own amidst its peer business schools, both internationally and domestically. According to Financial Times data, HBS faculty is currently 28% women. The discrepancy from the report’s 26% rate could be from a slight recent uptick (from 2016, when the 26% was reported), or a difference in definition of faculty (the FT could include all faculty instead of just tenured and tenure-track faculty). Regardless, Harvard Business School’s rate of 28% is higher than all but 15 other schools included in the most recent FT top 50 B-schools. Only five American business schools have higher rates. Because of the overall low rates, however, it says more about the industry’s need to hire more female faculty members rather than HBS’s rate being high.

Harvard Business School. Courtesy photo

For the student population, even with an increase in female students from 36% in 2006 to 42% in 2016, the school had the lowest rate of women enrolled among 11 Harvard professional schools and Harvard College. It isn’t much better for underrepresented minority students, which also rose from 8% in 2006 to 11% in 2016. Only four schools had lower rates, again putting HBS in the bottom half. The Engineering School and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences each had just 8% underrepresented minorities enrolled in 2016, which represented the lowest rates among all schools. At the top were Harvard College and the Graduate School of Education, each enrolling 19% minorities in 2016.

In terms of diversity of staff, the business school also trails fairly substantially compared to the other professional schools. At just 8%, HBS has less minorities on staff than every other professional school besides the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, which has 7%. And with just 1% international staff members, the school trails all schools besides the School of Divinity and the Radcliffe College, which both reported having no international staff members. For women staff members, the school fairs better with 60%, even the rate is a decrease from the 2006 rate of 66%. Four other schools at Harvard have lower percentages of women on staff with School of Engineering and Applied Sciences again having the lowest rate at 38%.

The report points out that despite Harvard’s Puritan roots and a lengthy history of closed doors, the school has most recently enrolled some of its most diverse classes — especially at the undergraduate level in Harvard College. “Alongside great ethnic and racial diversity, we have also achieved gender parity, an increased presence of international students, strong commitments to financial aid that bring us meaningful socioeconomic diversity, and ever-deepening commitments to accessibility for those with disabilities. Our community also benefits from a diversity of sexual identities, political viewpoints, and religions,” the report reads.

Still, the report authors admit, the university has not been as successful at increasing diversity and inclusion across all professional schools, which is essential to seeing the “intellectual fruits” of a diverse educational environment, the report reads. “To gain the benefit of diversity, Harvard must fully integrate all members of the University into academic, professional, and social contexts that support their individual flourishing and activate their potential. Excellence requires successful practices of inclusion at all levels, from the interpersonal to the organizational,” the report reads.

Still, this will be a challenging journey, the report’s authors admit.

“We may not yet understand all the relevant pedagogic tools for the work of simultaneously upholding principles of academic freedom and inclusion, or how to clarify fully the distinctions between productive discomfort, pointless harm, and actual trauma, but we will find the answers only if we seek them. And we must find them, if we are to make good on the opportunity our diversity presents us to build a solid foundation for the pursuit of excellence. Our enduring commitments to discovery and creativity should themselves help us find the way forward.”

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