A new book tries to understand the ‘confidence gap’ between men and women and its social effects

In a 2014 article in the Atlantic magazine, journalists Katty Kay and Claire Shipman call this difference between men and women a “confidence gap”. Through interviews they conducted for their book Womenomics, they reveal the widespread real-life consequences of this gap. Women managers in the UK are less confident than their male counterparts. Male business school students are four times more likely to negotiate their salaries and ask for more money. Men are more likely to apply for a promotion even when they meet only 60 per cent of the criteria, women typically apply only when they meet 100 per cent of the criteria. Kay and Shipman implicate men’s ability to be honestly overconfident – without faking it – as one reason for the confidence gap.

The other side to the gap, they say, stems from women’s perfectionism and risk aversion. Avoiding competitive environments prevents women from gaining valuable experience that could help them thrive better in those very same environments. It’s a vicious cycle that’s further perpetuated by the negative reactions women face when they actually do compete or assert their confidence. Incidentally, Kay herself realises that she attributes her professional profile to having an English accent in the US, echoing how people...

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