By Jeffrey Gangemi

When Radha Shreeniwas decided to get her MBA at Yale School of Management in New Haven, Conn., last summer, her son was less than a year old. At 31, Shreeniwas had left her job as a software engineer because she wanted to increase her project-management skills and start her own business.

Her first few weeks at school were quite a shock. Leaving her husband in Boston, where she returns on weekends, she had no idea where to find child care, whom to talk to for support, or even where to change her son's diapers. Along with the four other mothers in the program, Shreeniwas aired her grievances about the school's lack of support for mother/students, eventually forming a subset of Yale's "partners" group to address their needs.

WE WANT MORE. The students so far have succeeded in getting changing tables installed in the bathrooms, a locker with baby supplies, as well as more family-friendly events -- and they're not stopping there. "We've begun reaching out to new students to ensure that their baby-oriented questions are answered before they get here," says Shreeniwas. "We've addressed the issue that the university failed to."

Yale is not the only business school facing such pressures from mothers in its student body. Partly by necessity and partly by character, today's mothers refuse to consider motherhood and business success as an either/or choice.

Still, B-schools have long lagged in the percentage of women enrolled. These days, women account for roughly 54% of all undergraduate students and, according to a study by the Forté Foundation, a nonprofit group dedicated to helping women succeed in business, 44% of the students at top medical and law schools. Only about 30% of full-time MBA students are women.

BAD TIMING.  However, social scientists point to women's rising enrollment in graduate education in general, a key source of growth that B-schools can better tap if they were more supportive of parenting needs. Most schools are just starting to respond with small steps. And women are telling them, in effect: We want more.

Part of the problem is structural. While medical and law schools encourage prospective applicants to apply right out of undergraduate programs, B-schools often require several years of work experience. That's because most B-school administrators believe class discussion of case studies benefits from broader student experience.

But five years of work before applying often puts choosing a B-school in direct conflict with having kids. Still, the quality of work experience counts for a lot. "We need to expose the myth that women need so many years of work experience," says Anne Coyle, director of admissions at Yale School of Management.

MORE FLEXIBILITY.  Indeed, in search of autonomy and job satisfaction, large numbers of women simply start their own companies without bothering to get an MBA. According to a recent study by Babson College in Massachusetts, 79% of women entrepreneurs are also mothers. "Even if you have to work 80 hours a week to get the business off the ground, at least you can determine which 80," explains Nan Langowitz, who runs Babson's Center for Women's Leadership.

But for many women, the experience of a full-time program is irreplaceable. "People told me about online courses and different things. But when I do something, I really want to do it all the way," says Jacinta Banks, a 31-year-old mother of two and first-year student at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business.

As a result, some top MBA programs are finally doing more to accommodate MBA moms. The University of Chicago GSB, for instance, gives first-year students more flexibility in choosing core classes partly to accommodate student parents. And Stanford Graduate School of Business will adapt class schedules to make arranging for child care easier.

PART-TIME OPTIONS.  Some women students want the schools to do much more. One model program is Simmons School of Management in Boston, which bills itself as the world's only management program designed exclusively for women. Part of the school's raison d'être is to provide a flexible curriculum to women who have busy lives.

Andrea Bruce, assistant dean of Simmons, says 50% to 60% of women in the MBA program have families, and about 75% of them work full-time as well. Thus, the school offers seven different tracks, including daytime, evening, and accelerated MBA programs, lasting between 10 months and three-and-a-half years.

Another alternative many women would like to see more of is special part-time programs. For instance, at Columbia University School of Business, the global executive program is particularly attractive to women with families. It only meets once a month for four days, for one.

"The Global EMBA program kept me out of the house only once a month, and it doesn't take up the weekends, which is prime time for me and the kids," says Radhi Majmudar, a 37-year-old engineer and mother of two, who has used the program to change careers.

FAMILY FIRST.  Still, it's always going to be a challenge to balance soccer practice, daycare, midterms, and spending time with a significant other. As Shreeniwas enters her second year, her priorities are clear: Her family comes first, everything else comes second.

Her goal is to return to India one day to start a nonprofit venture to help children, which she sees as a good way to blend her management and mothering skills. "Getting an MBA with kids is not impossible," she says. In the future, many more women undoubtedly will make the same discovery -- with or without help from their schools.