The case for more women in business

The research that resulted in our understanding of Brain Dominance demonstrated how the physical differences in our brains cause us to think differently and possess different personalities. Neuroscientists also have discovered that male and female brains are physically different. It therefore follows that average male and female thought processes are likely to differ in relatively predictable ways.

While I am sure that no one will be surprised by this, the question is whether these differences are significant in the relative success of men and women in business?

Before considering this question it is necessary to look at the ways in which male and female brains differ.

If you are not familiar with the model being used in the following diagram click here for an explanation before reading on.

The above diagram is based on data collected by MyBrain International from 1,000 people divided equally between men and women.

As you can see, the significant differences between men and women are that men are on average more left-brained and cerebral, whereas women are more right-brained and limbic. This results in men having a tendency to be more logical and structured in their thinking while women tend to be more intuitive and empathetic.

These findings are consistent with the physiological differences between men and women where it is known that the limbic part of the brain is larger in women and that men tend to rely more heavily on the left hemisphere of their cerebral brain than their female counterparts. Interestingly, the network of fibres that connect the two halves of the cerebral brain, the corpus callosum, is 20% thicker in women than in men which, it has been suggested, results in women using both sides of their brain more evenly than men. This theory also would appear to be supported by this data as the men were 55% left-brained and 45% right-brained, in the case of the women the difference was much smaller, 49% to 51%.

But what is the relevance of this in business?

In his book A Whole New Mind, Daniel Pink describes how left-brained thinking has dominated the growth of organisations since the Industrial Revolution. During most of that period, organisations have been wrestling with the logistics of achieving consistent production processes, developing economies of scale and implementing sophisticated control mechanisms. More recently they have been automating processes using computer systems, itself an intrinsically logical technology.

However, he goes on to suggest that the very logical thinking that created so much success has now caused knowledge and information to be so abundant and freely available that products are no longer capable of sustaining a competitive advantage and differentiation on a technological basis alone. In today's markets it is the more the emotional connection we have with a product that creates differentiation. It is this, for example, that accounts for the phenomenal success of the iPod over other MP3 music players.

Pink argues therefore that we are moving away from the more cerebral and left-brained logic of the past towards an environment which he terms the "Conceptual Age" in which organisations need to connect with their customers, employees and shareholders at an emotional level. Sidodia, Sheth and Wolfe make a similar point in their book Firms of Endearment in which they refer to the "Age of Transcendence"; but whatever you call it, we know that customers are increasing the emphasis they place on the aesthetic qualities of products, shareholders are enquiring about a company's ethical policies before purchasing shares and employees want to be engaged, not simply employed. Business is therefore becoming more limbic and right-brained.

In this environment, it may therefore appear that female brains should have an advantage over their male counterparts. So is there any evidence to support this?

The best way to answer this question is to look at owner-managed businesses as they eliminate the risk that prejudice may play in skewing the data in traditional male-dominated organisations.

In 1984, when official records were first collated, there were just 645,000 self-employed women. Today, that figure has passed the one million mark and one in four of Management Today magazine's annual list of the Top 100 Entrepreneurs are now female.

If you consider wealth to be a measure of success, then a survey conducted by Datamonitor in 2007 makes interesting reading as they found that out of the UK's 276,000 millionaires, 46% were women and that the number of women millionaires was growing at almost 11% per year. Although these statistics include people who have not earned their money in business, the report concluded that much of the growing success of women was down to what they called the "new generation of kitchen table tycoons".

Data from the United States, where nearly half of all privately owned companies are majority-owned (50% stake or greater) by women, shows a similar picture.

It is also interesting to compare the different reasons that men and women attribute their success to. In interviews, men will often describe their products, the market, the processes they adopted etc. Women on the other hand tend to emphasise their empathy with the needs of their customers and the support and commitment of their staff. This difference directly reflects the findings of the Cambridge University psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen who wrote in his book, The Essential Difference; "The female brain is predominantly hard-wired for empathy. The male brain is predominantly hard-wired for understanding and building systems."

This difference can also be seen in the culture of many male-dominated businesses. Through our work at MyBrain International we have profiled the board of many different organisations and found that the following Brain Dominance profile is typical of most commercial organisations.

This diagram shows averaged results from the 12 members of a UK FTSE 100 company consisting of eleven men and one woman. Given what we have learned about the generic differences between men and women, it is not surprising that it is dominated by cerebral and left-brained thinking.

If Pink, Sidodia, Sheth and Wolfe are correct in their view that right-brained thinking is of increasing importance in business, then most of our large, male-dominated companies need to be aware of the discrepancy that may exist between their natural thinking style and the requirements of their customers. If not, they will increasingly find themselves losing out to the new breed of more empathetic and right-brained organisations.

In this environment, women should have a natural advantage over men. And as recent findings suggest, perhaps they already do.

This is an interesting subject for discussion and we would be interested in your observations and comments. Click here to add them in the related Brain Blog item.

Published June 2009

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