Women in businesses 'better leaders than men'

14/05/2010

A new study has suggested that women in business are seen to be more effective leaders than their male counterparts.

Research from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, shows the perception of women as more sensitive and competent causes them to be evaluated as better leaders than males in comparable positions.

Assistant professor Ashleigh Shelby Rosette, who led the research, said: "In business environments, even if women are thought to be sufficiently competent, they are frequently thought to be not very nice."

“But on the tiptop rungs of the corporate ladder, competence and niceness may have a certain level of compatibility for women top leaders.”

Rosette conducted two separate experiments to assess whether women could be evaluated as both competent and relational, and if that combination is what sets top successful women executives apart.
In the first, 323 students reviewed fictitious newspaper clippings and then evaluated the male or female CEOs mentioned on their competence and relational characteristics.

They found that when the newspaper articles portrayed women CEOs as successful and gave them credit for that success, students evaluated them more favorably than comparable male CEOs.

However, a second study found students only evaluated females more favourably than males in top-level positions, and not in middle management.