Women are more competent than men but less ambitious: study

Women are finally viewed as more competent — but they’re no better off for it in the workplace, a new study has found.

Over the course of the last seven decades, perceptions of male and female ability have shifted dramatically. Women are seen as just as capable as men, if not more so, the analysis found.

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But they’re still viewed as less ambitious, which is hindering them from breaking the glass ceiling, according to the analysis, published this week in the journal American Psychologist.

In fact, they’re still seen as “emotional,” a cringe-worthy stereotype that’s plagued women in the workplace for decades.

This was the first study to look at the way peoples’ views of gender roles have changed over a long period of time using representative samples. Researchers from Northwestern University analyzed 16 national opinion polls with more than 30,000 respondents over the past 73 years.

The polls asked people’s opinions on three traits in both men and women: The first was competence — or how intelligent, organized and creative a person is. The second was how affectionate, compassionate or emotional they are. Lastly, they looked at agency, or how ambitious, aggressive or decisive a person is.

As of last year, nearly 90% of respondents (comprising both men and women, by the way) said that men and women are equally intelligent, with 9% saying that women are actually even more intelligent.

This is a big change since 1946, the date of the first poll, says the study’s lead author, Alice Eagly, in a statement.

“Stereotypes have changed, but increasingly toward portraying women as more compassionate, affectionate and sensitive than men,” says Eagly, a professor of psychology at Northwestern’s Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences.

“Men are still viewed as more ambitious, aggressive and decisive than women, and that agency stereotype has not substantially changed since the 1940s,” Eagly adds.

Eagly thinks the reason for this may be that women are still concentrated in jobs where compassion and emotion are valuable assets, such as social work or teaching. But, she adds, those aren’t necessarily the jobs that pay the big bucks.

“Most leadership roles” require qualities like ambition or aggressiveness, Eagly says, which means women are at “a disadvantage in relation to leadership.”