Emphasizing female achievement in the workplace makes skilled women significantly more likely to want to be in charge, a study shows. Public feedback on a woman's performance can significantly increase willingness to lead, even in male-dominated environments, according to the study. The teams led by these women subsequently perform well more often.
The study, by Dr Jingnan Chen of the University of Exeter Business School, found that increasing the number of men on gender-based teams negatively impacts women's willingness to lead, especially in tasks classified as stereotypically masculine. are considered. However, publicly recognizing women's skills and achievements helps mitigate this effect.
In stereotypical male-dominated industries, women in both mixed and individual gender groups are twice as likely to avoid leadership roles. Men also shun leadership positions in stereotyped female industries, but only when they are in mixed-gender groups.
dr. Chen said:“There are so many capable women, but many don't feel encouraged in their workplace, and this makes them feel like they shouldn't be pushing for leadership positions. Not enough attention has been paid to the efforts of high-presenters, partly because they are less likely than men to promote their abilities themselves, but it is very important that their work is recognized equally.”
“If we have more recognition for women's achievements, so that their colleagues know what they are doing well, women will be more likely to use their leadership skills. Recognition of women's skills should be made by pointing to their quantitative achievements – specific, objective and measurable work such as sales figures or number of successfully completed projects.”
The research shows that making people's achievements public increases the likelihood that men will lead the way in male-only groups. This has the opposite effect for women in all-female groups – capable women are deterred from leading because women want to point out fairness and a sense of collaboration. However, in mixed gender groups, public feedback encourages the best female performers to lead.
Academics conducted an experiment using 248 University of Exeter students in groups of four, asking them to complete tasks such as answering quiz-style questions and how likely they were to lead their group for a particular task. They were also asked whether women or men would be more likely to know more about that topic, and how likely their answer was.
dr. Chen said:“We have shown that highlighting performance is both highly beneficial and often easy for businesses. The most capable female and male leaders emerge, and consistently the best group results are obtained when feedback is provided on public performance.”
