Highlighting women's achievements makes them want to be boss

Highlighting female achievements in the workplace makes capable women significantly more likely to want to be the boss, says a new research.

Public feedback about a woman's performance can significantly increase her willingness to lead, even in male-dominated environments, said the study, published in the journal The Leadership Quarterly.

The teams led by these women are subsequently more likely to perform well.

"There are so many capable women, but many do not feel encouraged in their workplace, and this leaves them feeling they shouldn't put themselves forward for leadership positions," said study researcher Jingnan Chen from the University of Exeter in UK.

"There is not enough attention paid to the efforts of high-achieving women, partly because they are less likely than men to self-promote their abilities, but it is very important that their work is equally recognised," Chen added.

In male-stereotyped industries, women in both mixed and single gender groups are twice as likely to shy away from leadership roles.

Men also shy away from leadership positions in female-stereotyped industries, but only when they are in mixed-gender groups.

For the findings, researchers conducted an experiment, using 248 students in groups of four, where they were asked to complete tasks such as answering quiz-style questions, and how likely they were to lead their group on a particular task.

They were also asked if women or men would be more likely to know more about that subject area, and how likely it was that their answer was right.

The study found that increasing the number of men in mixed-gender teams negatively impacts women's willingness to lead, especially on tasks seen as stereotypically male.

Publicly acknowledging women's abilities and achievements, however, helps to alleviate this effect.

The research shows making people's achievements public increases the chance that men in all-male groups will prefer to take the lead.

This has the opposite effect for women in all-female groups -- capable women are deterred from leading, due to women wishing to signal fairness and a sense of cooperation.

In mixed gender groups, however, public feedback significantly encourages the best female performers to lead.

"This research does not suggest anyone should downplay male achievements, but it shows companies should make a commitment to making sure female achievements are not overlooked or ignored. This is especially important in male-dominated industries," Chen said.

"We have shown highlighting achievements is both highly beneficial and often straightforward for companies. The most capable female and male leaders emerge, and consequently the best group outcomes are obtained, when public performance feedback is given," Chen added.

Over 95% women do not regret having an abortion

Researchers have found that even five years down the line after having an abortion, over 95 per cent of the women said it was the right decision for them. The study found no evidence that women began to regret their decisions as years passed.

On the contrary, the women reported that both their positive and negative feelings about the abortion diminished over time. At five years, the overwhelming majority (84 per cent) had either positive feelings, or none at all.

“Even if they had difficulty making the decision initially, or if they felt their community would not approve, our research shows that the overwhelming majority of women who obtain abortions continue to believe it was the right decision,” said study researcher Corinne Rocca, Associate Professor at University of California in the US.

“This debunks the idea that most women suffer emotionally from having an abortion,” Rocca added.

For the findings, the researchers analysed data from the Turnaway Study, a five-year effort to understand the health and socioeconomic consequences for nearly 1,000 women who sought abortions in 21 states around the country.

The analysis included 667 participants who had abortions at the start of the study. The women were surveyed a week after they sought care and every six months thereafter, for a total of 11 times.

While women did not report regretting their decision, many did struggle initially to make it. Just over half said the decision to terminate their pregnancy was very difficult (27 per cent) or somewhat difficult (27 pe rcent), while the rest (46 percent) said it was not difficult.

About 70 per cent also reported feeling they would be stigmatised by their communities if people knew they had sought an abortion, with 29 per cent reporting low levels and 31 percent reporting high levels of community stigma.

Those who struggled with their decisions or felt stigmatized were more likely to experience sadness, guilt and anger shortly after obtaining the abortion.

Over time, however, the number of women reporting these negative emotions declined dramatically, particularly in the first year after their abortion. (IANS)

Women in top roles face more sexual harassment

London, Jan 16 (IANS) Power in the workplace does not stop women's exposure to sexual harassment. On the contrary, women with supervisory positions are harassed more than women employees, a new research has found.

"When we first started to study sexual harassment, we expected a higher exposure for women with less power in the workplace. Instead, we found the contrary," said researcher Johanna Rickne from Stockholm University in Sweden.

"When you think about it, there are logical explanations: a supervisor is exposed to new groups of potential perpetrators. She can be harassed both from her subordinates and from higher-level management within the company," Rickne added.

More harassment from these two groups is also what we saw when we asked the women who had harassed them, the researchers said.

By analysing the responses from three surveys, researchers at Stockholm University, together with fellow American and Japanese researchers, have studied the prevalence of sexual harassment across the organisational hierarchy.

The results come from five waves of the Swedish Work Environment Survey, a nationally representative dataset collected biannually by Statistics Sweden (1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, and 2007) and with a total of 23,994 female respondents.

In the US and Japan, the research team collected new survey material during 2019.

The US sample included 1,573 employed female citizens, whereof 62 per cent had supervisory positions, while the Japanese sample included 1,573 respondents, of which 17 per cent of the women were in supervisory positions.

Apart from questions about sexual harassments, respondents were asked about perpetrators, how they reacted to the harassment, and what social and professional consequences followed the victimisation.

The study, published in the journal Daedalus, shows that women with supervisory positions experienced between 30 and 100 per cent more sexual harassment than other women employees.

This was true across the US, Japan, and Sweden, three countries with different gender norms and levels of gender equality in the labour market.

Comparing levels of leadership, exposure to harassment was greatest at lower levels of leadership, but remained substantial and similar to the level of harassment for the highest positions, the research said.

In all three countries, women with supervisory positions were subject to more harassment when their subordinates consisted of mostly men.

"Additional survey data from the US and Japan showed that harassment of supervisors was not only more common than for employees, but was also followed by more negative professional and social consequences," said study researcher Olle Folke.

"This included getting a reputation of being a 'trouble maker' and missing out on promotions or training," Folke added.