The Gentler Sex

As it probably has since time immemorial, argument rages about the reality of gender differences. Some studies suggest women leaders are more persuasive, more assertive and more willing to take risks than their male counterparts. They also have a stronger need to get things done than male leaders, according to a new study jointly conducted by Aurora, a London-based firm that provides gender diversity software, and Caliper, a Princeton-based management consulting firm, which has assessed the potential of more than two million applicants and employees for more than 25,000 companies around the world.

The study suggests women leaders are also more empathic, flexible and have stronger interpersonal skills than their male counterparts.

In her new book, The Female Brain, which she has described as a "kind of owner's manual for women", author Louann Brizendine explains that the hearing and communication cortex is much larger in females, explaining why women talk more. And Candy Tymson, the author of Gender Games: Doing Business With The Opposite Sex, says men and women also communicate in different ways. Male CEOs are often frustrated by their female CIO's modus operandi because of such differences in communication style.

"The managing director of a large food importer was complaining that his senior women have a tendency to come into his office, 'dump' all their problems and leave. Frustrated, he says: 'I pay them to solve problems, not give them back to me'," Tymson writes.

"This is a typical example of the different way men and women operate. The woman is simply discussing the issues with him. She knows she needs to find the answers but talking about it helps her work out the solutions. Meanwhile he has moved straight into solution mode. 'Once I'm told about a problem I have to solve it.' The result is he's feeling frustrated because he now thinks he's got to do her job. She's feeling frustrated because she thinks he is taking away her responsibility."

Generally speaking (and of course there are always exceptions), men use language to preserve their independence and maintain their position in the group; women use language to create connection and intimacy, Tymson says. When women are asked to make a decision, she notes, they will discuss it with others and seek their input before making a recommendation to senior management, believing it important that everyone feels they have contributed to the decision in order to win their support.

And, as DIMA's Hannah noted, Tymson says women tend to be more diffident than men.

Many women try to avoid seeming presumptuous by prefacing their statements with a disclaimer such as: "I don't know if this will work, but . . . " or "You've probably already thought of this, but . . . ", Tymson explains. "They may also speak at a lower volume and try to be succinct so as not to take up more meeting time than necessary. In other words, the man who said 'the same thing' as a woman probably said it very differently. Men tend to drop the disclaimer, speak at greater length and with absolute certainty."

Bartlett thinks such characteristics make good arguments for actually encouraging more women into the profession.

"It's a contentious issue obviously," she says. "Putting myself out on a bit of a limb here, I think women very much have complementary skills and I think instinctively, or intuitively, women are better communicators, better listeners and sometimes, better mediators. I think one of the key roles in the future IT industry in Australia is that of business analyst and I think - okay these are generalizations but if we accept it's a generalization - women are better at business analysis than men, because they have an innate ability to listen and to talk and to keep exploring, rather than jumping to solutions."