Business schools have been told to dump their machismo or risk becoming a sexist relic of the Eighties.

Researchers from Brunel University accused MBA business tutors of promoting a culture of "aggressive and over-confident attitudes".

They claimed unless business degrees were modernised to embrace feminine "soft skills" they were in danger of driving women away.

The report from Brunel's Business School said: "Despite women being more than 50 per cent of Britain's population and almost 50 per cent of the workforce, current courses frequently reflect and reproduce values associated with masculinity."

Ruth Simpson, of the Business School, said MBA courses needed to "address the modern, increasingly female, environment. In today's diverse workplace the hard skills, which have served managers well in the past, must be added to a greater focus on softer, perhaps more feminine, skills.

"MBA programmes need to provide opportunities for developing emotional intelligence and building better team working, communication and leadership skills."

A Brighton businesswomen said many of the report's findings rang true.

Diana Horner, director of Events Team UK and founder of Sussex-based network Enterprising Women, said: "MBAs have the image of a hothouse for young male executives who want to make it big in industry.

"As a woman, if you are seen as being aggressive in business, it can count against you. Women tend to be a lot more supportive and less competitive.

"A lot of women want flexible working hours and control of their own destiny. They can't always work from 7am until 11pm to get things off the ground. It happens more organically.

"I'm not sure it's the content of the course that would deter women but the fact it's so intensive. You have to have the cash to invest in the course and the time to study alongside a job."

Iraj Tavakoli, course leader for the part-time MBA at Brighton University's Business School, said Brunel's criticisms were more relevant to the MBAs of the past than the present. He said: "Today's MBAs have moved on to emphasise softer skills like communications and cultural issues.

"The old type of course was all hard factual analysis and the structure of the courses was a lot more competitive and suited men more than women. In the past six years, our MBA has changed quite a lot.

"The softer content of our course is emphasised as much as the hard.

"In today's globalised business world it's also much more important to understand different cultures."

Mr Tavakoli said at least half of his students were female and achieving as much as the men.

He cautioned against patronising women by suggesting they were not suited to hard business.

He said: "More and more women are reaching management positions and doing very well."

Business studies remain among the most popular for applications for undergraduate and graduate degrees.

Last month it was predicted an additional 12,000 business courses would need to open across Europe to meet the growing demand.