Do women have more emotional intelligence than men?
It’s a common belief that women possess more emotional intelligence than men. To tackle this age-old stereotype, several universities in Europe carried out a massive study spanning nearly three decades. The analysis drew on 1 279 academic papers and incorporated data from 609 278 individuals across 76 countries. The results showed that women demonstrated a greater ability to recognise and understand emotions. However, when it came to regulating emotions, a different pattern emerged. Men and boys generally scored higher in managing their own feelings, whereas women scored higher in managing the feelings of others. The findings were published in the journal ‘Emotion’(opens in new window).
What we think we know
“Women are emotionally intelligent. Men think they are,” commented Jochen Menges, professor of leadership at the University of Cambridge, in a news item(opens in new window). “On performance-based tests, women’s advantage in general emotional intelligence is substantially larger. On self-reports, it almost disappears. Self-perception and demonstrated ability are not interchangeable.” The research team couldn’t explain the reason behind this disparity. “The gap between performance and perception is fascinating. Men may overestimate their emotional abilities, women may underestimate theirs, or both may be happening at once,” Menges explained. “Our data cannot tell which explanation is correct. Either way, confidence and competence are not the same thing – and organisations should not confuse them.” “Our findings suggest that common assumptions about women and men’s emotional abilities are often too broad,” stated Mary Hausfeld, assistant professor in management at the University of Limerick. “Rather than reinforcing stereotypes, the evidence points to a more nuanced picture in which gender differences vary depending on the emotional skill being examined and the context in which it is measured.” With about three decades of data at their disposal, the researchers were able to observe how things changed over time. They found that the overall gap in emotional intelligence between genders has shrunk in recent years.
Treating emotional intelligence as a feminine trait
Having high emotional intelligence helps us perform better at work, handle stress more easily, and build stronger workplace relationships by communicating well and resolving conflicts. That’s why understanding how emotional intelligence affects workplace performance and gender perceptions can help reshape professional settings. “Persistent assumptions that women naturally possess greater emotional intelligence can create 2 opposing risks. Genuine differences may be dismissed as unscientific, obscuring potential strengths. At the same time, simplified claims can reinforce stereotypes and lead women to be assigned a disproportionate share of emotional and social responsibilities at work,” added Jochen. Overall, the study findings indicate that asking whether men or women are generally more emotionally intelligent is oversimplified, as it overlooks key differences in how emotional intelligence is defined and measured. “The question of whether women or men are more emotionally intelligent is too simple,” concluded Jochen. “The better questions are: which emotional ability, measured how, directed towards whom and observed in what context? That is the direction science has been taking, and I advise organisations to do the same to make better decisions.”
