MBA Event Spotlights Women of Smith

Businesswomen need to speak up and ask for more, two experts from the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business said June 20, 2015, at the Forté MBA Women’s Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C.

“It only takes two seconds to ask,” said Elana Fine, director of the Smith School’s Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship. “Sometimes people are so scared that the answer is ‘no,’ but really the worst thing that can happen is the answer is ‘no.’”

Fine shared her comments while moderating a keynote panel on empowering women entrepreneurs. About 400 women MBA students from Smith and 47 other business schools attended the discussion, part of the three-day Forté Foundation event at Georgetown University.

Smith School Vice Dean Joyce E.A. Russell led a separate workshop on negotiation strategies for women. “For women to break through at the top, they must succeed at negotiating,” Russell said. “Yet research shows that women are less likely than men to ask for raises, promotions and better job opportunities. When they do speak up, they do not ask for enough and are not persistent in their requests.”

The Forté Foundation includes corporations, business schools and social sector organizations focused on empowering women in the workplace. The Smith School joined the alliance in 2014 as part of a broader commitment to provide new scholarships, events and career opportunities for women.

“I see this as a huge step for us, being part of the Forté Foundation with the other top schools,” said Russell, a champion of the Smith School’s 50/50 by 2020 initiative — a pledge made in spring 2015 to close the MBA gender enrollment gap within five years.