Study: Can Single- Sex Education Make Women Less Risk- Averse? (Sosa, Booth, Nolen, 2012)
Finding: Assumptions that women are more risk-averse than men may be more about social context and less about inherent gender traits
InPower Insight: When it comes to risk-taking, the stories we tell ourselves may just be stories.
Summary:
Those stories about how women are risk averse may be telling us only half the truth.
Researchers gave students at a British university in same-gender and mixed-gender groups a chance to place a bet on the lottery. Previous research has found that women are more risk-averse than men, and the hypothesis went that the women wouldn’t risk as much on the lottery.
At first the students behaved according to the hypothesis and women in both groups were less likely to play the lottery. But then after 8 weeks the numbers changed and the women in the same-sex group were just as likely to take the lotto risk as the men (in both mixed and same gender groups).
This suggests that the risk-taking data found in previous studies reflected social learning rather than “inherent gender traits”. The results of this study suggests that inherent traits can in fact be altered by the environment.
Career Coaching tip: Becoming good at taking risks is an important business skill so if you want to get ahead, learn to take risk and don’t let other people – women or men – tell you that you (or “women”) aren’t good at risk. Your personality and/or social context has a lot more to do with your risk profile than your gender. Be deliberate and thoughtful about what risk you’re comfortable taking this skill will serve you well.
Category: Capability
Keywords: risk taking, risk, gender traits
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Guide to Women in Leadership
Executive Coach Dana Theus shares her tried and true strategies to help women excel in higher levels of leadership and achieve their executive potential.
