Fifty years after the first eight women enrolled in the two-year MBA Program at HBS, 800 alumni came to campus to celebrate that milestone.

As part of the School's April W50 Summit, HBS hosted two days of panels, workshops, and presentations covering everything from health care and education to negotiation tactics and responsible investing. Keynote speakers included Karen Gordon Mills (MBA 1977), administrator of the US Small Business Administration; Ann Moore (MBA 1978), retired chairman and CEO of Time Inc.; and Sheryl Sandberg (MBA 1995), COO of Facebook; along with many other featured presenters. (See www.alumni.hbs.edu/women50 for a full list of speakers, as well as photos and videos from the events.)

Professor Robin Ely, senior associate dean for Culture and Community, unveiled the early results of her survey of some 6,500 HBS alumni, which found that only 10 percent of female graduates, ages 31 to 66, reported that they were stay-at-home mothers—a much lower percentage, Ely noted, than recent media coverage would suggest.

Other events included discussions led by 12 faculty members of Professor Boris Groysberg's case "Women MBAs at Harvard Business School: 1962–2012," where attendees reflected on the past and offered an action plan for the future, and the premiere screening of the documentary A Woman's Place, a project led by Professor Cynthia Montgomery that featured alumnae across the five decades reflecting on their lives and careers.