Men and women are creative in their own ways

What is it about?

Although men may appear to be more creative than women, we shift the focus toward different behavioral tendencies of each gender to suggest that each gender has their own strengths in creativity. We focus on two behavioral tendencies influencing creativity: taking risks and empathizing with others. In a meta-analysis of 700 studies, we find that whereas men are more likely to take risks, women are more likely to be empathetic. More importantly, we find that empathy can be a more powerful explanation than risk-taking in accounting for gender effects on creativity. Further, we suggest that women’s strength in empathy can be leveraged through a creativity evaluation system that recognizes the value of useful ideas. This finding can leave alarming implications for organizations that overvalue novelty of ideas, without due emphasis on the practicality, appropriateness, and utility of creative ideas.

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Photo by Marvin Meyer on Unsplash

Photo by Marvin Meyer on Unsplash

Why is it important?

This paper challenges the prevailing consensus that men are more creative than women. Thus, we offer a distinct perspective on gender biases in performance evaluations. Moreover, we provide hands-on advice for organizations to overcome such gender bias and leverage women’s strength in creativity. As such, we enrich and extend prior work that has offered actionable solutions to overcoming gender biases and managing talent.