Self Confidence Varies by Gender

Do women have less self confidence than men?

The 21st century is era when women in the developed world are taking over men’s jobs, they can materially as well as spiritually take care of the family, they have freedom to express their needs and wishes, they can travel or do anything their ancestors would never dreamt of.

Still, there are many women who always feel that in some fields they can never do as well as men. This applies for very gender neutral jobs like cooks, writers, journalist, radio moderators etc. There are many of them, but how often is for example a girl TV presenter hired for her abilities and how often is she hired for her nice face? How many women top class cooks do you know? Why is this?

Is this because of the stereotypes in thinking and the self perception of each gender? I feel that the society in which we grow up affect us very much, regardless the global trend. On one hand, many women still feel the need to be protected and look up to men as the rulers of the world. On the other hand, many men feel endangered by strong women who are taking over their professional and social roles. And there the mental fight and wicked circle starts because both genders need to be accepted and recognized in their social status and have to fight for it.

As for the self confidence, it seems to be the social environment in which we grow up that strengthens or weakens or self perception. It is a family with a one strong parent or a model when one gender is preferred to the other. There are many sons who feel neglected because their sister is the daddy’s little girl and there are many daughters who feel it is not fair that their mummies always make them do all the housework and spoil their brothers. The social environment is the second factor, in countries where women are very active in public life and are brought up to self confidence, they can hardly feel to be something less then men (the contrary may though happen).

In general, both genders are equal and are predisposed to have the same self esteem, it is only our environment that can negatively or positively affect this self perception.

Do elder people underestimate themselves compared to younger ones?

And how is it with age difference? There are many elder people who are laid off because of young dynamic ambitious employees who recently joint their company. These people surely feel less secure than the younger ones whose professional life has recently started, who are enthusiastic and full of fresh ideas and opinions. This is the case in many companies, especially in middle management positions.

For the top management, the contrary may be true. Someone who is really an expert on something can hardly be aged 25. Well, in some cases he can, but it is not very common.

There is also very big difference in age perception. Older people tend to be not very happy about huge inflow of youngsters and the less experienced ones feel limited by the old ways and old structures in some companies.

Who is more confident then? Highly experienced older people can hardly feel threaten by someone who can be their child or grand child, but people working on average positions seems to feel insecure in presence of someone strong and ambitious, who knows the modern trends and technologies. It can be also the case in some families: when you are a child you obey and trust your parents. But as you grow up, you see they also make mistakes, and at certain point you see that you know better then they do. For some situations there is no difference in career and family. Only one is harder to accept than the other one.

It is not easy to generalize people. For many centuries women were made inferior to men and some are still finding their new role in the current times. The status is finally equal, and however it still happens, there is no need to underestimate women (nor men).

The same logic applies for elder people. In some regions, they are highly respected for their long life experience, in others they are treated like the less important thing. Elder people deserve respect however every time the level of recognition and honors shall be considered individually and in regard of the situation. (You can hardly say that someone who has been doing the same thing for 50 years is an expert without looking at the results of his work.)