Gender differences are often differences in power

Power influences thinking and behavior

Research over many decades has shown that men and women tend to think and act differently in many situations. For example, many studies suggest that men, on average, are more assertive, more willing to take risks, and more confident than women. These differences  can provide  men with many advantages, especially when it comes to being selected for leadership roles. It is well documented that confidence and assertive behavior tend to be confused with  competence and eligibility.

Yet, what are the reasons behind sex/gender differences? Evolutionary oriented researchers argue that men and women have developed different psychological and physiological traits over time to maximize reproduction and survival. Biologists point out that men are generally physically stronger and that higher testosterone levels in men lead to greater assertiveness and risk-taking. Social scientists, in contrast, tend to emphasize socially created gender roles and power structures in society.  

Men as a group control more resources in most societies, not only in work-life and through leadership roles, but also in personal domains  and within families. Having control over resources that are valued by others  represents an important source of power.  Simultaneously, many studies show that power affects thinking and behaviour in fundamental ways, and that these effects tend to occur without the awareness of the power holder.

Gender or power? 

Power researcher Adam D. Galinsky and a research team recently investigated if and how sex/gender differences are associated with the effects of having power. They systematically compared a series of effects of power to sex/gender differences within the same domain. They selected effects of power based on controlled experiments in which participants were placed in a situation with either high or low power. Sex/gender differences were selected based on large meta studies. In total, 102 types of comparable effects were examined. The main categories were agency, communion orientation, self-evaluations, and a number of cognitive processes, including creativity and abstract thinking.  

70 percent of the sex/gender differences studied were aligned with the effects of power. This means that both men in general and people with high power in the experiments scored higher than women in general and those with low power in the experiments. For only 20 percent of the effects of power, researchers found no corresponding sex/gender differences. Only about eight percent of the power effects were inconsistent, meaning these effects were in the opposite direction of sex/gender differences.  

With respect to the three main categories of effects, the proportion of matching effects ranged from 65 to 80 percent. In other words, these results suggest that a high proportion of sex/gender differences overlap with the effects of power. This gives reason to believe that power partially explains many typical sex/gender differences. Yet, this proposition needs further investigation, according to the researchers. Could there be other underlying factors related to power that better explain the pattern of results?  

The researchers therefore also examined effects of the personality trait extraversion but did not find similar relationships with power effects. On the contrary, the proportion of consistent effects dropped from around 80 percent to about 10 percent for many of the effects studied. These findings offer support to the proposed importance of power in explaining many sex/gender differences.  

The researchers argue that ignoring the role of power when interpreting sex/gender differences can contribute to reinforced stereotypes and prejudiced expectations to women as well as men. This in turn, can impede equality, especially in the workplace and in selection  to powerful roles.However, the  increasing number of women in powerful positions may also help reduce many assumed sex/gender differences over time. 

The text was first published in DN/Dagens Næringsliv: https://www.dn.no/ledelse/ledelse/dn-ledelse/linda-lai/kjonnsforskjeller-er-ofte-maktforskjeller/2-1-1621479

Translated from Norwegian to English by BIs Communication Deptartment and the author.