Gender and Self-Perception in Competition

The academic literature pertaining to gender divides in competitive attitudes typically looks at two related factors: propensity to compete and performance within competition. The former is used as a proxy for individual preferences over competitive environments (i.e., whether one prefers to compete or not) while the latter relates to some of the observable gender differences in competitive environments, such as timed standardized tests or high-frequency stock trading.

In a 2011 paper aptly titled “Gender and competition,” Niederle and Vesterlund review a number of the foundational studies on the topic.[5] One of these findings is that women “respond less favorably to competition than men,” and thus, self-select into competitive environments less frequently. Conversely, men are highly likely to choose competition, a fact they attribute to varying levels of confidence in one’s own ability. Citing their own previous study from 2007, the authors note that, while women are less likely to choose competitive environments regardless of ability, men demonstrate over-confidence in their relative ability when selecting competitive environments.[6]

This effect was studied as follows: participants in a lab experiment were broken into teams of equal number male and female peers, and asked to solve an individual task, initially compensated based solely on their own outcomes. This individual compensation scheme is referred to as “piece-rate” incentives. After receiving feedback on their performance, participants were then entered into a “tournament” compensation scheme, where payments were directly linked to relative performance within their group. In the third round of the study, participants were given the choice of selecting which incentive scheme they preferred, competitive or piece-rate. What the authors found was, regardless of one’s own performance on the previous tasks, men were substantially more likely to self-select into the competitive tournament than women — at a rate of 73 and 35 percent, respectively. As the authors write, this finding suggests that, given the same ability, men are roughly twice as likely to opt into competition than women.

Gneezy et al. (2003) further add to the weight of evidence that men not only prefer competition more than women, but also perform better in competitive environments.[7] Using a similar structure as the 2007 Niederle and Vesterlund study, within a competitive task environment they find “a significant increase in performance for men, but not for women.” One further distinction they add to the literature is that, when such competitions are within- rather than between-gender, this effect is practically eliminated.

Believing that some of this effect may be due to socialization, Gneezy et al (2009) sought to highlight the role that societal norms play in gender differences in preference for and performance within competition.[8] The authors were interested in how these norms dictate differences in competitive attitudes between sexes – and took to the field in two distinct environments. As they describe it:

" “One unique aspect of these societies is that the Maasai [in Tanzania] represent a textbook example of a patriarchal society, whereas the Khasi [in India] are matrilineal.” "

In both places, the authors asked participants to perform a task, and allowed them to choose between a competitive or non-competitive compensation structure. In Maasai, the results were similar to those observed throughout the West: men were nearly twice as likely to compete as women. In Khasi, however, the trend disappeared, and women were equally likely to compete as men. The result makes a compelling case for the role of socialization on behavior.

The impacts of these results are plenty. For one, they underline the enormous role that socialization has on self-perception. Moreover, they suggest that, ceterus paribus, women may be less likely to pursue careers in industries or roles deemed as highly-competitive. Indeed, a 2001 study published in the Journal of Industrial and Labor Relations Review found that much of the observed gender gap in compensation — i.e., the gender pay-gap — is driven by an underrepresentation of women in the highest-compensated jobs within large organizations.[9] Though, of course, there are a number of complicating societal factors that also contribute to this reality, the authors suggest that preferences for competition (dubbed “taste discrimination”) may also be a contributor.

The question that individuals and organizations must engage with is how to combat gender differences in preferences for competition. As the Gneezy (2003) study demonstrates, in within-gender competitions, women perform just as well as men. What, then, can be done to elicit the within- rather than between-gender responses to competition for women?

Perhaps a more fundamental question is how to make jobs and industries that are traditionally male dominated more appealing to female applicants. A study of how graduates from a top MBA program apply to and choose different professions showed a significant divide between genders — with women less likely to apply for finance and consulting jobs than their equally qualified male counterparts.[10] Of course, both finance and consulting are traditionally conceived of as “competitive” professions.

But what is the cause and what is the effect of this reality?

In studying labor segregation between the sexes, the social psychologists Cejka and Eagly (1999) found that “to the extent that occupations were male dominated, masculine personality or physical attributes were thought more essential.”[11] Surely enough, of the eight stereotypically masculine personality traits listed by the researchers, competitive is number one.

Yet, it is not the case that personal competitiveness is a necessary (or even desirable) quality of a high-performing employee in these sectors. Perhaps, then, the culture of these professions has been driven by the fact that they are male dominated — rather than their being male dominated on the basis of their culture. One place organizations can start is by actively trying to dispel the stereotypes associated with them.

The gender divide in both job-choice and pay is not simply unjust, it creates horrible inefficiency. Women, on the whole, are more educated and score higher on measures of intelligence (qualms with IQ tests notwithstanding) than men. Yet, the foreboding façade of male-dominated professions is causing well-qualified candidates to apply elsewhere. In order to dismantle this counter-productive construct, we must disentangle the norm from the necessary — the perceptual from the real.