The study shows that risky situations send anxiety levels soaring in females
Women may hit the glass ceiling because they don’t cope with stress as well as men, according to new research
Risky situations send anxiety levels soaring in females - but are water off a duck’s back among their male counterparts, the study claims.
While it may seem these findings could help explain why women are said to still face a glass ceiling in the office in spite of legislation outlawing discrimination on the basis of gender, they are disputed by other psychologists.
Sociologist Susan Fisk, a doctoral candidate at Stanford University in California, who conducted the research said: 'My findings have troublesome implications for women’s ability to achieve equality in the workplace.
'People frequently encounter high-risk, high-reward situations in workplaces and if women avoid these situations or perform more poorly in them because they are more anxious they will reap fewer rewards than otherwise similar men.'
Fisk believes that women’s anxiety and poorer performance in risky situations 'may be an unexplored contributor to the dearth of women in positions of leadership and power - as success in these kinds of circumstances is often a precursor to career advancement and promotion.'
One experiment involving 18 to 81 year-olds asked to imagine themselves in a brain-storming meeting where bad ideas could either damage their career or not matter found anxiety levels rose over 13 per cent among females during the former scenario. In males there was no effect.
Fisk said: 'On the surface risky situations may not appear to be particularly disadvantageous to women - but these findings suggest otherwise.'
She said the phenomenon could be due to these kind of circumstances being riskier for women than men.
Fisk said: 'Prior research suggests even if a woman has the same objective performance as a man others are likely to judge her performance as worse and attribute her failure to incompetence instead of poor luck.
'Furthermore this body of research suggests failure in a risky situation is more costly to women as it may reinforce or create self-doubt about their own competence.'
Women experience more anxiety and perform worse than men when faced with high stakes situations
Increased anxiety in risky settings is problematic for women because it may depress their ability to achieve. Fisk also found women perform worse in risky situations - even when they have the same ability in a non-risky setting.
In another experiment, described in a paper presented to the American Sociological Association, participants were given 20 questions to complete and were told they could bet money on each answer - making the situation risky.
If they placed no bets, they were guaranteed to walk away with $15, but, if they placed bets, they could earn as little as $5 or as much as $55, depending on how much they bet and the accuracy of their answers.
Women correctly answered about 11 percent fewer questions than men in this risky situation involving betting, even after their general verbal ability was taken into account.
Sue Lovegrove, Chartered Psychologist, believes there is still insufficient reliable and valid research to back up the idea than women don't deal with stress as well
A similar effect was seen when using grades data from an undergraduate engineering course in which the mid-term exam used an unusual methodology that required students to state their confidence in their answers.
This created a risky setting because higher confidence in correct answers generated higher scores, while higher confidence in incorrect answers produced lower scores.
On this test, a student could receive any score between -33 per cent and 100 per cent, and were guaranteed to earn 50 per cent if they stated they had no confidence in any of their answers.
But the final exam occurred in a setting that was much less risky as it was impossible for students to lose points.
Women’s grades on the mid-term were about 4 per cent lower than men’s - even after their general ability in the engineering course was taken into account. On the final exam there were no gender differences.
Fisk suggests employers work to eliminate situations that are needlessly high-stakes. She said: 'We live in an economy that demands innovation and diversity of thought.
'If encouraging businesses to decrease the prevalence of risky environments allows employers and companies to get better ideas and enhanced performance from their employees it’s a win-win solution for both women and employers.'
However, speaking to the MailOnline, Sue Lovegrove, Chartered Psychologist and Director at SML Training and Consultancy, believes there is still insufficient reliable and valid research to back up Fisk's theories.
She says: 'Unless talented and ambitious women have equal access to high-risk, high reward work situations, how can they demonstrate their confidence and competence?'
'Businesses can’t ‘decrease the prevalence of risky environments for their employees. However, because they need both women and men in their boardrooms to get diverse ideas and enhanced performance, they can give any under-represented groups the practical support to sustain a level-playing field in those high-risk, high-reward roles which can lead to rapid promotion.'
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2727882/Women-arent-reaching-boardroom-handle-stress-men-claims-new-research.html#ixzz3Am3uORKU
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