Women break glass ceiling but hampered by self-doubt

WOMEN may have broken through the glass ceiling and into the boardroom, but they are still crippled by self-doubt, even when they are as intelligent as men, a new study suggests.

In the first research of its kind, psychologists in the US asked a group of university students to rate their abilities compared with other classmates.

They found that gender played a large role in perception of personal intelligence, with women believing they were far less intelligent than others, even when their grades were equally good. Men thought themselves more intelligent.

Katelyn Cooper, a doctoral student in the Arizona State University (ASU) School of Life Sciences and lead author, said: “Over and over again, women would tell me that they were afraid that other students thought that they were stupid. I never heard this from the men in those same biology classes.”

The ASU team found that women were far more likely to underestimate their own intelligence. When comparing female and male students, male students thought they were cleverer than around 66 per cent of the class, while female students thought they were smarter only than 54 per cent.

A recent study found that 40 per cent of millennial women experienced selfdoubt at work compared to 22 per cent of men. And the Institute of Leadership and Management, based in Staffordshire, found that half of female leaders experienced self-doubt in contrast to fewer than a third of male managers.

Previously, experts have claimed women are more likely to blame themselves for setbacks or failures, while believing their successes are down to luck.