Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/63421
The Babe, Baseball and Tampa Babe Ruth's longest home run landed in our front yard.* On April 4, 1919, And we continue to make history. 1,100 undergraduate business majors More than 400 MBA and MS-TIM students State-of-the-art building opened August 2000 Financial center with Bloomberg Professional™ real-time trading Letters Wonderful Women I would like to extend my gratitude to BizEd for "Educating Women," the wonderful article you put together on professional women in education for your July/August issue. Helen Frame Peters Dean Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts Six centers and institutes Home to TechVillage Tampa Bay business incubator University students from almost 100 countries More than 600 community and business leaders on boards, advisory groups and support groups serving the University Accredited by AACSB International * By the way, it was 587 feet. Thank you for your informative July/August issue's articles on women in business and the factors contributing to the 30 percent barrier. I found, however, that the articles' focus on barriers in corporate America and academia neglected the enormous strides women have made as entrepreneurs. According to the Center for Women's Business Research, women own roughly 28 percent of all privately held companies in the U.S. While that number is not much dif- ferent from the magic 30 percent of women in b- school, the rate of increase is note- worthy: During the last five years, the Center estimates that the number of women-owned firms increased 14 percent nationwide. Furthermore, sales grew by 40 percent, and employment increased by 30 percent. These numbers represent an The University of Tampa John H. Sykes College of Business 401 W. Kennedy Blvd., Tampa, FL 33606 (813) 258-7388 Web site: www.ut.edu BUILDING BUSINESS LEADERS SINCE 1931 6 BizEd NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2002 opportunity for MBA programs trying to increase the number of women in their classes because busi- ness schools don't exclusively prepare their graduates for rigid corporate careers. They also train them for entrepreneurship, which frequently provides greater flexibility and a rich- er family/work balance. Business Boston College schools should highlight and market this invaluable training and the flexi- bility it can bring as they strive to attract women and break through that 30 percent barrier. I am acutely aware of the value of an MBA in starting my own busi- ness. In 1979, I earned my MBA from UCLA's Graduate School of Management (today the Anderson School). When I started my business in the early 1990s, I had six children, ranging in age from 3 to 12.My independence gave me the variable hours I craved. The ability to sched- ule my work times around my chil- dren's school hours, limit hours ini- tially, and ultimately increase them as my children (and business) grew were critical to me.My MBA played a leading role in my business' success and in my ability to balance—usual- ly—the demands of family and work. Linda Abraham President Accepted.com Correction In the "Spotlight" column of the July/August issue, the dean of ESPAE's business school was incor- rectly identified as Juan Alvarado. The current dean is Moises Tacle.