I had a chat with a professor on the diploma committee. He talked about this declining trend in women attending the programme. He said that it was very new (started to appear only in the last 2-3 years) and that its cause was as of yet unknown. Now, it could just be a self-fulfilling prophecy: as applicants look up statistics, they might imagine a hostile environment for women.

I can certainly vouch for the fact that Insead does not put up a hostile face nor offer a hostile environment for female participants in the programme. Academically, women do just as well as men according to this professor. I have found in general a lot of support, no discriminatory behavior - apart from an outside interviewer who bore no relation with the school - and a lot of activities that women participate in, in fact no activity that they cannot participate in. Seriously, there is even a women's touch rugby team! How much further does one need to go in terms of integration?

There is a lot of female faculty members, management and staff members - and insead seems to listen to everyone's interest and help whenever possible. Insead took the initiative to talk to women participants to try to find out from them what their impression of the school was, what they could do better.

Your ideas are as always most welcome.