It seems like an old stereotype, but according to Ronald Burke of York University’s Schulich School of Business, women are less like than men to aggressively put themselves forward for promotion.
Image courtesy of Shutterstock
As outlined in this Globe & Mail story, there are several tendencie that account for this: women want the competence to be “completely unassailable” before putting themsleves forward; distaste for self-promotion makes them less likely to toot their own horns; women managers want to finish the jobs they started before moving on.
RELATED CONTENT
Where are the women CIOs? Three speak out
Forbes writer to Mayer: You can’t have it all
Unfortunately, some of these are the very characteristics that make woman candidates better for the job, according to Burke:
Ironically the very qualities that hold women back from putting themselves forward for higher roles – being cautious and risk-averse – also make them better in those roles. That means, Dr. Burke said, “they are not only doing a disservice to themselves, but also to the company, because you end up not having the best people doing these jobs. So there’s costs all round.”