May 8, 2008

Why I will send my daughter to a B-school but not my son

It is interesting to study the changes that have taken place in human culture. In ancient times, the hunter-gatherer culture prevailed in society. Men and women actually shared the activity of procuring food whether it was through the task of hunting or gathering. There was no explicit subdivision of tasks on the basis of gender. Whatever subdivision existed was due to the differences in physical ability. It was only later when agrarian culture was adopted and the focus was on extending the family that gender subdivision of tasks came to be.

The ancient culture is so back, isn’t it? Women have made their presence felt in all spheres of work, from microbiology to literature to engineering to sport. Modern culture (which just sounds so ancient now, doesn’t it) expects and indeed requires that women don’t just bake the bread, they earn it too! The men and women in the family go out to hunt. They have to. So where lies the difference and what’s in a B-school anyways? Let’s investigate.

The vast majority which participates in the B-school show does so because of various issues associated with a management course. Some of these issues being; it ensures a hefty pay packet at the end of it, many useful contacts may be made in the Machiavellian environs of a B-school and a foothold is obtained in the cut throat corporate world. What about the learning, one may be tempted to ask. That's not even a factor that a wannabe B school grad considers!

Harsh but true.

I would send my daughter to a B-school because I would want her to experience a B-school and everything that comes with it. It would in a sense be a social learning which is impossible elsewhere. What about my son? He’ll hunt. Hunt in the only place where one should; the real world. Why shouldn’t my daughter do the same? Simply because she’d be a woman and in an anthropological perspective, ‘new’ to hunting. Her hunting would need some fine tuning right? The toilet training that a B-school provides should just about do.


"Beautiful beautiful involvement, remember?" Here we are talking about which of my children I'd be sending to a B-School! Sigh... The pitfalls of loving to write ;-) I stumbled upon this essay topic on the net. Laughed for a couple of minutes. Then realised that it's quite a bitch to come up with something coherent and true! I had to sound just a touch sexist to do justice to this topic but I like what I came up with :D

2 comments:

IBSkoolin said...

Brilliant blog maska, I agree with little of your point of view on MBA, and am surprised that Manipal finds such little mention in your blog but relished the writing. Absolutely delicious. This is your playground. Go. Play!

Wordpsmith said...

Thanks brother.. and this IS my playground :)