School Notes: School of Management
May/June 2017

Survey depicts challenges for women in global business

The Global Network for Advanced Management has released the results of “Women in the Global Workforce,” a survey exploring why women remain underrepresented in business leadership roles worldwide. Administered to 4,881 students and alumni from 28 of the network’s schools, the survey represents workplace experiences in more than 100 countries. The survey sought to understand what continues to hold women back in their professional lives, and why they are hindered more in some areas than in others. It found variation across the globe and even across industries within the same country, suggesting that there is more to blame than a monolithic culture of patriarchy. 

Building a business in Somalia

Three School of Management students are among a select handful from across the Yale campus taking part this semester in an innovative course aimed at creating a livelihood for Somalis displaced by strife in their homeland. The course, Building a Business in a Failed State: A Practicum in Hope Village, Somalia, is being taught by James Levinsohn, the Charles Goodyear Professor in Global Affairs, professor of economics and management, and founding director of the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs.

Located just outside Mogadishu, Hope Village was created to offer services to Somalis displaced by war and conflict, including a hospital, housing, schools, a sustainable agriculture project, and a women’s education center. It has been home to more than 90,000 displaced persons. But chronic unemployment among residents is a huge problem.

In the course, students are helping Hope Village residents identify a product that they can manufacture, draft a business plan, and begin exporting the product. Students are also working on a second business plan for a product to be sold locally in Somalia.