Are men more competitive than women?

Every sexist argument that favours the efficiency of men at workplace always mentions that men are more competitive than women. Where many agree with this theory, an equal number of people disagree with it.  A recent report by the Washington Post, has revealed that men and women both see competition differently.

The researchers of the study, Muriel Niederle, a professor at Stanford and Lise Vesterlund found that women were much less confident in their abilities, and that is why they shy away from situations in which they would have to compete with others. The study required both men and women to add up two digit numbers, for which they received money.

When the experiment was non-competitive all players got 50cents for each right answer and when it was competitive, the winner took all where the highest-scoring player got $2 for every right answer. Despite winning the winning scores being equal for both men and women during competition; only 35% women said that they preferred the competitive set-up as compared to 75% men.

Muriel Niederle said, “In terms of money maximizing choices, high-performing women enter the tournament too little and low performing men too much… The result is that few women enter the competition and few women win the competition,” according to the Washington Post

Another experiment, Niederle and her co-author Alexandra Yestrumskas paid people to solve as many mazes as they could in 10 minutes. The study gave similar results, confirming that women lack confidence, in comparison to men. Another experiment revealed that women are more corporative than men.

Offering a solution, Niederle said, “Maybe we should change the women… Make them more competitive. Tell the girls: You just feel you aren’t good, but you are good.” This, however, is not true for women across the world. Women in some parts of the world like Columbia are more competitive than the boys. This proves that the fear of competition and lack of confidence are both cultural problems.

ORIGINAL SOURCE:  Washington Post

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By: Shubhangini Arora