Did you know, women don’t apply for jobs unless they’re 100% qualified?
But maybe women should, after all, as @maddy_mitchell’s trending audio from TikTok & Instagram says, “how hard can it be, boys do it!”
It’s true! Research shows that women are unlikely to apply for a position unless they meet 100% of the requirements, while men will apply if they meet 60%.
The book 'The Confidence Code' talks about the work of Research Psychologist Zachary Estes, who has studied the difference in confidence across genders. It say “the natural result of low confidence is inaction” and so “when women don’t act, when we hesitate because we aren’t sure, we hold ourselves back”. It goes on to share another key point, “when [women] do act, even if it’s because we’re forced to we perform just as well as men do".
So could this be a contributing factor in why there continues to be fewer women in STEM careers and if so could remembering that applying for jobs when you don't meet 100% of the criteria is okay? After all, the research shows, boys do it.
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