Are You Feeling This? Why Higher EQ May Make Women Better in Business

Emotional intelligence may make women better leaders.

Getting ahead in business is often attributed to character traits such as ambition, confidence, and even aggression. Women— in outdated tropes— are sometimes dismissed as too emotional to withstand the pressures of big business, and are still woefully underrepresented when it comes to top leadership roles.

More recent research, however, has confirmed that women are of course capable of rising to the top tiers of companies, due in part to their emotional intelligence.

“Recent research has confirmed that women are of course capable of rising to the top tiers of companies, due in part to their emotional intelligence. #workplace #womeninbusiness ”

What Is Emotional Intelligence?

Emotional intelligence (EI) has been a recognized concept for over 50 years, originating from the idea of emotional strength—a contribution from psychologist Abraham Maslow in the 1950s. The term “emotional intelligence” was used for the first time in the 1960s, and by the 1980s psychologists were starting to compare EI to other intelligence types, such as IQ. The term “emotional quotient” (EQ) was coined—essentially the same as EI.

EI/EQ is understood as the capacity of people to relate appropriately and positively to others, engage constructively with their emotions and thoughts, and to use this understanding in everyday life. The four pillars of EI/EQ are the abilities of a person to perceive, use, understand, and manage their emotions.

In practice, this means that people with higher EI/EQ are more likely to interact well with others and manage their emotions effectively. There has been ample evidence over the past few decades that professionals with higher EI/EQ scores are more successful in business.

The reasons for this are fairly obvious. People with more emotional intelligence are better at interacting with people, which is a must in every business. Delving a little deeper, there are a significant number of reasons why higher EI/EQ have a positive effect on professional performance.

2001 research carried out at the Johnson & Johnson Consumer & Personal Care Group revealed a strong correlation between higher emotional intelligence and good leadership performance.

The study found that those with higher EI were better at practicing self-awareness and self-management, while also scoring higher than average in the areas of self-confidence, achievement orientation, leadership, initiative and influence.

The same study found that female-identifying business leaders scored higher than their male counterparts in the areas of emotional self-awareness, conscientiousness, service orientation, and communication.

“Recent research found that female-identifying business leaders scored higher than their male counterparts in the areas of emotional self-awareness, conscientiousness, service orientation, and communication. #empathy #womeninbusiness”

Many of these facts were backed up in a University of Pittsburgh research paper published in 2020. The paper concluded that IQ only played a role in around 7% of leadership effectiveness, yet EQ played a huge role in how leaders addressed critical challenges and opportunities.

The antiquated adage that men are from Mars, women are from Venus is an exaggeration. But research shows there are some differences across gender in terms of thinking, feeling and behavior. When it comes to emotional intelligence, however, individuals identifying as women and men show distinct differences.

There is no conclusive explanation as to why those differences exist, but two popular theories suggest that a combination of nature and nurture is responsible.

Societal Expectations. The stereotyped belief that “boys don’t cry” is harmful both to men and women, and could be one of the reasons behind women’s better emotional intelligence scores.

An article published by The Business Standard in 2020 raised the point that encouraging boys to suppress their emotions (such as not crying) stunts their emotional growth, leading to long-term difficulties in terms of engaging with others and dealing with their own emotions.

A doctor interviewed for the article reported that the man-up culture can result in males developing personality disorders.

How can this disparity result in giving women an advantage in business?

Once again, there is no single definitive answer. But it is clear that having a good understanding of your own emotions is helpful in terms of interacting with others in a positive way. The ability to deal with employers, employees and colleagues constructively is obviously a valuable asset.

Hardwired For Empathy? In terms of innate qualities, there do seem to be some gendered differences when it comes to experiencing empathy. Neuropsychologia, a peer-reviewed scientific journal, published a study in 2012 showing that women were more adept at recognizing and processing facial expressions, while men were better at recognizing behavior such as aggression and intimidation.

A 2014 study suggested that females and males experienced social behavior of others differently. Linking that to the degree of activity in the right temporal cortex of the brain. Women in the study displayed significantly more activity in that area than their male counterparts.

Further research from 2020 confirms the fact that women are more empathetic than men in the workplace. While the study focused on social entrepreneurship, it highlighted how women were more often motivated by empathy than men. Of the women interviewed, 50% more women agreed they were more likely to feel empathy in the workplace and allow it to affect their decision making processes.

While there has been progress in terms of gender equality, there is still much to do.

While research has suggested that the soft skills of empathy and overall emotional intelligence can be an asset to professional women, this advantage is not yet mirrored in the demographics.

“While research has suggested that the soft skills of #empathy and overall emotional intelligence can be an asset to professional women, this advantage is not yet mirrored in the demographics. ”

A 2019 study found that in 1972 only 4.6% of small businesses were owned by women. By 2019 that number had risen to 42%.

Researcher Daniel J. Sandberg conducted a study in 2019 which revealed that businesses with female CEOs and/or CFOs generated better stock price performance when compared to the overall market average. The same 2019 study found men outnumber women as CEOs by 19 to 1 and as CFOs by 6.5 to 1.

While there is more representation for women across many industries, there is room for improvement. In addition to a myriad of other socio-economic challenges, challenging the status quo is a task faced by most women in business.

Although research is helping to move things forward, it is likely to take some time for workplace equality to materialize.

The age-old characterization of women as more fragile and emotional than men still stands as a barrier in many industries (and society as a whole), yet it is—slowly but surely—becoming more and more difficult to defend a lack of female representation in business leadership.

Megan Hudson is a content champion for various online publications, often covering a range of business topics from finance for startups to small business accounting tips.