IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/bushor/v61y2018i5p765-774.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Bridging the gender gap in confidence

Author

Listed:
  • Carlin, Barbara A.
  • Gelb, Betsy D.
  • Belinne, Jamie K.
  • Ramchand, Latha

Abstract

Underconfidence among women can reduce their career aspirations and thwart advancement in whatever career they choose. For managers seeking to retain and promote capable women, we recommend addressing the gender gap in confidence to increase the effectiveness of women in the current workforce as employees and leaders and thereby attract the best new hires among women seeking opportunity. Based on a wide range of research and the broad experience of the authors, we discuss useful approaches—include helping women learn how to be more self-confident through classes and webinars—but also discouraging practices such as equating low confidence with low competence. The entire organization can benefit when its practices recognize the need for and payoff from reducing the confidence gap between women and men.

Suggested Citation

  • Carlin, Barbara A. & Gelb, Betsy D. & Belinne, Jamie K. & Ramchand, Latha, 2018. "Bridging the gender gap in confidence," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 61(5), pages 765-774.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:bushor:v:61:y:2018:i:5:p:765-774
    DOI: 10.1016/j.bushor.2018.05.006
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0007681318300764
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.bushor.2018.05.006?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Heilman, Madeline E. & Lucas, Jonathan A. & Kaplow, Stella R., 1990. "Self-derogating consequences of sex-based preferential selection: The moderating role of initial self-confidence," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 46(2), pages 202-216, August.
    2. Ertac, Seda & Gurdal, Mehmet Y., 2012. "Deciding to decide: Gender, leadership and risk-taking in groups," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 83(1), pages 24-30.
    3. Kennedy, Jessica A. & Anderson, Cameron & Moore, Don A., 2013. "When overconfidence is revealed to others: Testing the status-enhancement theory of overconfidence," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 122(2), pages 266-279.
    4. Martin, Ashley E. & Phillips, Katherine W., 2017. "What “blindness” to gender differences helps women see and do: Implications for confidence, agency, and action in male-dominated environments," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 28-44.
    5. Anderson, Cameron & Brion, Sebastien & Moore, Don A. & Kennedy, Jessica A., 2012. "A status-enhancement account of overconfidence," Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, Working Paper Series qt6s5812wf, Institute of Industrial Relations, UC Berkeley.
    6. Jennifer Merluzzi, 2017. "Gender and Negative Network Ties: Exploring Difficult Work Relationships Within and Across Gender," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 28(4), pages 636-652, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Rigolini, Alessandra & Gabaldon, Patricia & Le Bruyn Goldeng, Eskil, 2021. "CEO succession with gender change in troubled companies: The effect of a new woman CEO on firm risk and firm risk perceived," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 37(1).
    2. Getchell, Kristen M. & Beitelspacher, Lauren Skinner, 2020. "Better marketing for female marketers: Gendered language in the Forbes CMO list," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 63(5), pages 607-617.
    3. Karpinska-Krakowiak, Malgorzata, 2021. "Women are more likely to buy unknown brands than men: The effects of gender and known versus unknown brands on purchase intentions," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    4. Wilson, J. Holton & Dingus, Rebecca & Hoyle, Jeffrey, 2020. "Women count: Perceptions of forecasting in sales," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 63(5), pages 637-646.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lyn M. Van Swol & Paul Hangsan Ahn & Andrew Prahl & Zhenxing Gong, 2021. "Language Use in Group Discourse and Its Relationship to Group Processes," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(1), pages 21582440211, March.
    2. Baiba Renerte & Jan Hausfeld & Torsten Twardawski, 2020. "Gender, overconfidence, and optimal group composition for investment decisions," TWI Research Paper Series 121, Thurgauer Wirtschaftsinstitut, Universität Konstanz.
    3. Susan R Fisk & Jon Overton, 2020. "Bold or reckless? The impact of workplace risk-taking on attributions and expected outcomes," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(3), pages 1-19, March.
    4. Hügelschäfer, Sabine & Achtziger, Anja, 2014. "On confident men and rational women: It’s all on your mind(set)," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 31-44.
    5. Hamza Fadhila & Azouzi Mohamed Ali & Jarboui Anis, 2014. "CEO's commitment bias, ownership concentration, and innovation decision: Behavioral management of CEO's discretion," Cogent Economics & Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 2(1), pages 1-24, December.
    6. Steffen Keck & Wenjie Tang, 2018. "Gender Composition and Group Confidence Judgment: The Perils of All-Male Groups," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(12), pages 5877-5898, December.
    7. Chen, Po-Jung & Hsu, Ching-Yu, 2022. "CEO optimism, CEO selection, compensation, and corporate investment decision: The case of CEOs who were rehired as CEOs by another firms after turnover," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    8. Jeroen Nieboer, 2022. "Positional enhancement in effort-based social comparisons," Discussion Papers 2022-02, The Centre for Decision Research and Experimental Economics, School of Economics, University of Nottingham.
    9. Ba, Cuimin & Gindin, Alice, 2023. "A multi-agent model of misspecified learning with overconfidence," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 315-338.
    10. Phua, Kenny & Tham, T. Mandy & Wei, Chishen, 2018. "Are overconfident CEOs better leaders? Evidence from stakeholder commitments," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(3), pages 519-545.
    11. Ertac, Seda & Gumren, Mert & Gurdal, Mehmet Y., 2020. "Demand for decision autonomy and the desire to avoid responsibility in risky environments: Experimental evidence," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    12. Sule Alan & Seda Ertac & Elif Kubilay & Gyongyi Loranth, 2020. "Understanding Gender Differences in Leadership," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 130(626), pages 263-289.
    13. Kray, Laura J. & Kennedy, Jessica A. & Van Zant, Alex B., 2014. "Not competent enough to know the difference? Gender stereotypes about women’s ease of being misled predict negotiator deception," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 125(2), pages 61-72.
    14. Jubril Animashaun & Ada Wossink, 2020. "Patriarchy, Pandemics and the Gendered Resource Curse Thesis: Evidence from Petroleum Geology," Economics Discussion Paper Series 2006, Economics, The University of Manchester.
    15. Kennedy, Jessica A. & Schweitzer, Maurice E., 2018. "Building trust by tearing others down: When accusing others of unethical behavior engenders trust," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 111-128.
    16. Grossman, Philip J. & Eckel, Catherine & Komai, Mana & Zhan, Wei, 2019. "It pays to be a man: Rewards for leaders in a coordination game," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 161(C), pages 197-215.
    17. Lee, Jangwook & Chung, Jiyoon, 2022. "Women in top management teams and their impact on innovation," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    18. Berge, Lars Ivar Oppedal & Juniwaty, Kartika Sari & Sekei, Linda Helgesson, 2016. "Gender composition and group dynamics: Evidence from a laboratory experiment with microfinance clients," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 131(PA), pages 1-20.
    19. Ernesto Reuben & Krisztina Timko, 2018. "On the effectiveness of elected male and female leaders and team coordination," Journal of the Economic Science Association, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 4(2), pages 123-135, December.
    20. Maria Denisa Vasilescu & Simona Andreea Apostu & Eva Militaru & Eglantina Hysa, 2022. "Public Opinion on European Health Policy, Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(8), pages 1-17, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:bushor:v:61:y:2018:i:5:p:765-774. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/bushor .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.