It has been more than 50 years since Harvard Business School started admitting women, yet the institution   is still trying hard to find out how to best attract and support them. Its latest effort: a program targeting women's colleges--place that are not traditional feeding grounds for the male-majority business school. The program is called Peek. It offers juniors, seniors and recent graduates from women's colleges the opportunity to read and discuss four HBS case studies in class specially taught by top HBS members. About 50 to 70 promising students will pay $500 for their stay there. Women make up 41 percent of Harvard Business School class of 2016--the most the school has had. In 1985, women made up only one-quarter of the graduating class. Harvard is not alone when it comes to struggling with a gender gap  . At Wharton, the class of 2016 is 40 percent women; at Standford Business School, it's 42 percent. No top business school had gotten to 50 percent yet. Despite the Peek program's good intention, the $500 fee bothered someone, said John A. Byrne, the editor of business school new site. "The fact that HBS would charge women for the chance of coming to campus rubbed a lot of people the wrong way," said Byrne. HBS said the $500 fee was a "fair price" for room and daily meals at the business school for a weekend, and didn't actually cover the full costs of the program. For years, women students at Harvard Business School failed to keep pace with men. In 2010, Harvard business School got a new manager, Nitin Nohrin, who promised a turnaround. Nohrin designed a program to encourage women students and professors. He promised to change the school's case studies so that at least 20 percent of the people in the business texts would be women. What can we learn about the program Peek?
It is free for new students. It offers all kinds of business classes. It is helped by the best teachers. It is intended for high school students.