Closing the gender gap in the business classroom: focus on finance

Purpose Finance is a male-dominated field of work. This study aims to understand if learning in finance follows the same pattern. Furthermore, the authors want to understand if foreign female students are subject to the same cultural norms and sorting mechanisms as their counterparts from the USA or Finland. Design/methodology/approach In the context of a capstone course, students of two well-known international business programs (one in the USA, the other in Finland) participate in a business simulation. The authors surveyed the students on their learning experience across different business functions. The authors collected 440 responses over five years. Findings A gender gap exists in learning finance. Females surveyed reported learning less (9%–15%) than males. However, foreign females reported learning more (11%–17%). Additionally, the authors find no gender gap in learning of other business functions (i.e. marketing and strategy). Foreign females seem to bypass traditional roles and sorting mechanisms. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to document the moderating effect of foreignness on the gender gap in learning.