In an alarming reality where only 14 percent of top executive positions in the workplace are held by women, a program has been started to try to change that.

The University of Iowa Tippie College of Business will wrap up the first year of the Kathleen Dore-Henry Tippie M.B.A. Leadership Program in the fall. The program aims to help women in graduate business studies develop leadership skills for the workplace.

UI alumna Kathleen Dore, who graduated with an M.B.A. in 1984 along with Keith Jepsen and Henry Tippie, has generously donated to the college in creating the program.

“As we see women rising up to the length in business, the number of women are still a very small percentage,” said Jennifer Blackhurst, the director of the program. “When we look at women in the business school, the undergraduate level is about 50/50. When we get up into graduate school, were looking at about 25 to 30 percent women.”

The two-year leadership program includes special training, mentorship, and skill workshops and offers two full-ride scholarships, one of which is given to a first-year candidate and the other to a second-year candidate.

Consisting of 30 students, 15 in their first year and 15 in the second year, the program helps build an authentic leadership style for women pursuing business, said Meganne Franks, a first-year student in the program and also one of two the scholarship recipients.

“The best part about the program is building that relationship with other women, there’s so few in the industry,” Franks said. “Being able to own it and uplift each other, build that network, I think it’s really just the empowerment.”

Lisa Ferguson, another scholarship recipient, said the program help created a strong sense of community among all the women in the program, which helped propel conversation about women in the workplace.

“A leadership program designated specifically for women is really important because once you get higher in the ranks, you see fewer and fewer woman,” she said. “How can we better prepare and recruit for these positions? That’s why it’s so important, because we’re the minority in those positions, and by addressing some of those challenges and what sort of problems do exist.”

According to Standards & Poor’s 500 Companies, women hold only 4.6 percent of CEO positions nationwide. Blackhurst, as well as Franks and Ferguson, said they want that changed.