Comfortable With Competing

Although study after study in economics and psychology seem to agree that women shy away from competition while men embrace it, new University of Maryland research has thrown a wrench into that across-the-board conclusion.

As women reach middle age, they’re just as happy as men to jump into competitive situations, according to a paper published in June in the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. Led by Ken Leonard, a professor of agricultural and resource economics, the study cast new light on discussions of gender and equity in the workplace and beyond, and raises new questions about how gender-related behavioral traits vary over a lifetime.

Previous researchers may not have asked enough questions to get the full picture, particularly when it came to who they’d been focusing on as research subjects, Leonard says.

“All the research people had been doing had been with college-age women 18 to 25, and because of that, it turns out we were missing a much more interesting picture,” he says.

Leonard, working with research partners including students and former students, tested about 700 subjects in Malawi and another 84 in Maryland, all ranging in age from 18 to 90. He had them play a simple game putting shapes in order, and gave them the choice of competing against others taking the same test for symbolic compensation.

Among his key findings:

• Younger women really are hesitant to compete against others, but at around age 50, women’s willingness to compete rises sharply.
• The impact of age on women’s competitive spirit carries across the cultural divide.
• Older women’s taste for competition equals men of all ages (and conversely, men’s willingness to compete remains stable).

“I think this is a pretty new and exciting finding—the idea that these gender differences are not immutable,” says Judy Hellerstein, a UMD professor of economics, much of whose research deals with how gender, race and ethnicity affect labor market outcomes.

More research is needed on questions like the rate of change in such attitudes, and what actually causes the change—biology, social experiences or a combination of both, she says. Regardless, Leonard’s research raises an intriguing possibility that there might be a path to helping women compete more effectively with men earlier in life, with major workplace and social implications.

“If there are ways to overcome these gaps early on, it could help not just women, but overall productivity and society in general,” Hellerstein says.