Author(s)

Sarah Davies¹, Henk Broekema², Marie Nordling³, Adrian Furnham^1,4*

¹Research Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, University College London, London, UK.
²Advanced People Strategies Ltd., iCon Environmental Innovation Centre, Daventry, UK.
³PCL Tunbridge-Wells, Kent, UK.
⁴Norwegian Business School (BI), Olso, Norway.

This paper considers the impact of gender differences in motivation and values on women’s participation in management and senior executive roles, together with the extent to which women who do attain these roles resemble their male peers in terms of their motives and values. The results of a large, quantitative study using the Hogan Motives, Values and Preferences inventory (N = 7571) are presented. These indicate that women do differ significantly from their male peers on 9 out of 10 motive and value scales but that the differences between senior women and their non-managerial female colleagues are less than those between senior men and their non-managerial male colleagues. As a result, key gender differences increase rather than decreasing at senior levels.

Gender Differences, Motivation, Values

Davies, S. , Broekema, H. , Nordling, M. and Furnham, A. (2017) Do Women Want to Lead? Gender Differences in Motivation and Values. Psychology, 8, 27-43. doi: 10.4236/psych.2017.81003.