Gender and Competition

Thanks to the folks at Freakonomics for pointing out this study that calls into question the conventional wisdom that men are naturally more competitive than women.

The University of Chicago economics professors Uri Gneezy and John List and the Columbia University economics professor Kenneth Leonard studied competitiveness among the Maasai in Tanzania, a patriarchal society, and the Khasi in India, a matriarchal society. The economists found that though Maasai women were less competitive than Maasai men, Khasi women were more competitive than both Khasi and Maasai men.

Hmmm. So much for conventional wisdom. Read more.