What differences are there between women and men?

Here are 20 questions about differences between women and men. How many can you get right?

1. 17 differences
between women
and men

2. Difference # 1
Companies with
more women in top
management are
more successful

3. In testing the performance of 2,360 companies
globally over the last six years, our analysis
shows that it would on average have been better
to have invested in corporates with women on
their management boards than in those without.
Source
Gender diversity and corporate performance.
A Credit Suisse Research Institute publication.
https://infocus.credit-suisse.com/data/_product_documents/_shop/360145/csri_gender_diversity_and_corporate_performance.pdf

4. Source
Gender diversity and corporate performance.
A Credit Suisse Research Institute publication.
https://infocus.credit-suisse.com/data/_product_documents/_shop/360145/csri_gender_diversity_and_corporate_performance.pdf

5. Source:
http://www.catalyst.org/press-release/73/companies-with-more-women-board-directors-experience-
higher-financial-performance-according-to-latest-catalyst-bottom-line-report
https://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Changing_companies_minds_about_women_2858
Fortune 500 companies with the highest
percentages of women board directors
outperformed those with the least by 66%
measured by return on invested capital.

6. For companies in the top quartile of
executive-board diversity, ROEs were
53% higher, on average, than they were
for those in the bottom quartile.
Source
https://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Organization/Talent/Is_there_a_payoff_from_top-team_diversity_2954
Study of 180 publicly traded companies in France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States over the period from 2008 to 2010.

7. Firms with women in top positions perform
better - especially if the firms pursue an
innovation intensive strategy, in which
creativity and collaboration are especially
important.
Source
2008 study on the top 1,500 U.S. companies from 1992 to 2006.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/07/the-end-of-men/8135/?single_page=true

8. Difference # 2
There are more
male CEOs than
female CEOs

9. 22 Fortune 500 companies have
a woman as CEO
Source
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_CEOs_of_the_Fortune_500

10. 3% of the 119 largest Swiss
companies have a female CEO
Source
http://www.schillingreport.ch/upload/public/5/4173/Schillingreport2013%20E.pdf

11. Difference # 3
Women earn less
than men

12. Der Lohnunterschied zwischen Frauen
und Männern ist von 2008 bis 2010 von
19,3% auf 18,4% gesunken.
Source
Schweizerische Lohnstrukturerhebung 2010
http://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/portal/de/index/news/publikationen.html?publicationID=4937

13. Difference # 4
Women do more
unpaid work than men

14. Source
http://blog.oecdfactblog.org/?p=400
Examples of unpaid work: Buying groceries and others things needed in the household, cooking,
washing dishes, vacuuming / cleaning, washing clothes, ironing clothes, organizing clothes, doing
gardening, repairing things, playing with / educating / nursing children.
Minutes per day that women spend
more than men doing unpaid work

15. Diffrence # 5
Women rate meaning
higher than pay and
status. Men do not.

16. Men Women
Most men rate pay and
status higher than meaning.
Most women rate meaning
higher than pay and status.
Source
Ms. Joanna Barsch, McKinsey & Company.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsWWbxLmIS8

17. Difference # 6
Men lie about
earnings. Women lie
about their weight.

18. Women tend to lie about
their age and their weight.
Source
http://23moments.com/why-men-lie-up-and-women-lie-down
Men tend to lie about their
earnings and their height.

19. Difference # 7
Women have more
social competence
than men

20. Source:
http://drum.lib.umd.edu/bitstream/1903/7216/1/umi-umd-4612.pdf, p. 4.
Females are rated on average
as having greater levels of
social competence than males.

21. Women experience more
emotions than men do.
Source
Ms. Joanna Barsch, McKinsey & Company.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsWWbxLmIS8

22. Women tend to be a little better than
men on average at sensing in the
moment what the other person is feeling.
Source
Daniel Goleman.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6368484

23. Empathy derives, originally,
from maternal care.
Source:
Frans de Waal. http://youtu.be/UONxT4Tb3C0

24. Women score significantly higher
than men on measure of empathy.
Sources
http://youtu.be/Aq_nCTGSfWE, minute 6.
Frans de Waal. http://www.sciencefriday.com/program/archives/200910236

25. Women have, on average, more
emotional intelligence than men.
Groups with more women therefore
tend to be smarter.
Source:
Thomas Malone.
http://www.niemanlab.org/2011/05/mit-management-professor-tom-malone-on-collective-intelligence-and-the-genetic-structure-of-groups/

26. Women cooperate more than men in
mixed-sex interactions.
However, male-male interactions are
more cooperative than female-female
interactions.
Source
Sex differences in cooperation: A meta-analytic review of social dilemmas.
Balliet, Daniel; Li, Norman P.; Macfarlan, Shane J.; Van Vugt, Mark.
Psychological Bulletin, Sep 12, 2011.
http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/2011-20484-001/

27. http://www.slideshare.net/frankcalberg/social-competence

28. Difference # 8
Women have smaller
and deeper networks

29. Women generally have smaller networks
with approximately equal amounts of men
and women.
Source
Studies by Torres and Huffman.
Gender diversity and corporate performance.
A Credit Suisse Research Institute publication.
https://infocus.credit-suisse.com/data/_product_documents/_shop/360145/csri_gender_diversity_and_corporate_performance.pdf

30. LinkedIn has shown that women tend to
have fewer connections on professional
online networking platforms.
Source
Gender diversity and corporate performance.
A Credit Suisse Research Institute publication.
https://infocus.credit-suisse.com/data/_product_documents/_shop/360145/csri_gender_diversity_and_corporate_performance.pdf

31. Men Women
Men build wide networks but
not deep relationships.
Women build deep
relationships with a few
people.
Sources
Ms. Joanna Barsch, McKinsey & Company. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsWWbxLmIS8
http://www.economist.com/node/21538162?fsrc=scn/tw/te/ar/contactsports

32. Gender distribution on Twitter
Source
http://www.beevolve.com/twitter-statistics/

33. Protected accounts by gender on Twitter
Source
http://www.beevolve.com/twitter-statistics/

34. Difference # 9
Men are more likely
than women to
disregard guidance
from others

35. Studies show that men are more likely than
women to disregard guidance from others.
Source:
Kelly E. See, Elizabeth Wolfe Morrison, Naomi B. Rothman, and Jack B. Soll:
“The decision-making flaw in powerful people.”
http://www.strategy-business.com/article/re00162?pg=all

36. Source
”Typisch Mann – typisch Frau.” Einstein, June 17th, 2010.
http://www.srf.ch/player/video?id=3702ed16-d306-4aa8-a0f0-11716f6561bf
Men do not feel well when being interrupted.

37. Difference # 10
Women’s voices
are more pleasing
than men’s

38. Scientific studies have shown that people
generally find women's voices more
pleasing than men's.
Source:
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/10/21/tech/innovation/female-computer-voices/

39. Difference # 11
The higher women climb up
the corporate ladder, the
fewer children they have.
For men, it’s the opposite.
Source
http://www.mckinsey.com/locations/swiss/news_publications/pdf/women_matter_english.pdf, p. 16.

40. Source
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/07/the-end-of-men/8135/?single_page=true
Difference # 12
Women live longer
than men

41. Years that women outlive men
Source
http://www.prb.org/Articles/2011/biodemography.aspx

42. 4 reasons
1. Later age at marriage led to fewer pregnancies,
reducing women's risk of dying in childbirth.
2. Access to food and health care within households
became more equal.
3. Greater migration and trade increased the spread
of disease, disadvantaging men.
4. Urban settings led to more competition for mates,
causing increased male risk-taking behavior.
Through most of history,
women lived shorter lives than men.
That changed towards the 15
th
century.
Source
http://www.prb.org/Articles/2011/biodemography.aspx

43. Difference # 13
Men take more risks
than women do

44. Source
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-human-beast/201008/why-women-live-longer-men
Women live longer than men mostly
because they avoid a risky lifestyle.
Women avoid risk because they are
primary care-givers.

45. Under stress, men take more risk and women
take less risk.
These gender differences in behavior are
associated with differences in activity in the
insula and dorsal striatum, brain regions
involved in computing risk and preparing to
take action.
Source
http://cdp.sagepub.com/content/21/1/36

46. Sources
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/07/the-end-of-men/8135/?single_page=true
http://www.bolandathletics.com/4-5%20The%20difference%20between%20men%20and%20women.pdf
Difference # 14
Men are bigger
than women

47. The body size of men is, on average,
10% larger than that of women.
Sources
Hofstede, Geert: Cultures and Organizations, p. 137 and 462.
http://www.nzz.ch/nachrichten/sport/aktuell/schwingfest_-_wenger_eilt_in_frauenfeld_von_sieg_zu_sieg_1.7292911.html

48. As the bone structure of boys and girls develops,
 boys develop broader shoulders with
narrower hips.
 girls develop broader hips and
narrower shoulders.
Source
http://www.bolandathletics.com/4-5%20The%20difference%20between%20men%20and%20women.pdf

49. Difference # 15
Women use body
language more
than men do

50. When entering a room, women tend to
use 27 distinct behaviors while men
displayed only 12 distinct gestures.
Source
http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2011/10/body-language-improve-patient-encounter.html

51. Difference # 16
Women are better
than men at
recognizing faces

52. When women were shown images of
unfamiliar people, eye-tracking technology
showed that they fixed upon the faces
10% to 40% more times than men did.
Source
Research by Jennifer J. Heisz.
http://blogs.hbr.org/daily-stat/2013/07/why-women-are-better-than-men.html

53. Girl babies pay attention to facial expressions.
Boy babies pay attention to toys.
Source
Frans de Waal. http://www.sciencefriday.com/program/archives/200910236

54. Difference # 17
Women like brighter
colours better than
men do

55. Background color preferences
among male Twitter users
Source: http://www.beevolve.com/twitter-statistics/

56. Favourite colours
of men
Source
Survey of 232 people from 22 countries.
http://advertiser-in-arabia.blogspot.com/2011/03/true-colors-colors-by-gender.html

57. Source: http://www.beevolve.com/twitter-statistics/
Background color preferences
among female Twitter users

58. Source
Survey of 232 people from 22 countries.
http://advertiser-in-arabia.blogspot.com/2011/03/true-colors-colors-by-gender.html
Favourite colours
of women