Are Women Less Competitive than Men? Explaining the Gender Gap

Time, November 30, 2010

Why are there fewer female CEOs? One professor says he has the answer. Call it the Competition Gap.

For the past four decades, ever since women began vying with men in the workforce on a large-scale, economists have wondered when gender differences in pay and achievement would shrink. In recent years the question has shifted from when to why not already. Some blame discrimination. Others say women face more difficult career paths than men because of child-birth. But a growing number of academic economic studies, including a new one that was published this week as a working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research, are increasingly pointing to a new reason for gender inequalities in the workforce. When it comes to competitiveness, women just don’t stack up.