The odds are overwhelmingly stacked against women in corporate and executive roles. They ‘re up against powerful and entrenched male associates, so it’s hard to combat their influence, which has become a battle of power. Even if she has clearly proven herself to be a hard worker, it would still be difficult for her to be acknowledged.
But guys, too, feel intimidated by women who are educated and articulate. They get alarmed, more so if the woman is single and independent. Research by the American Psychological Association shows that a woman’s success threatens the man’s ego, wavers and undermines his senses of self-trust, and shakes his maleness or manhood that defines him.
Here’s the reason. It is commonly believed that men, on an unconscious level, are looking for physically attractive women whereas women are looking for successful men with status. As a result, women often worry about their male partners leaving them for more attractive women, and men often fear their female partners will leave them for more successful men.
Therefore, when women achieve success and attain higher status, at that moment, their male partners will be likely concerned about them seeking out more thriving men, thus losing their self-esteem which is based on comparing themselves to the better men and the fact that they have to compete with them. In simple terms, he suffers from jealousy in addition to envy.
A study conducted by Kate Ratliff, lead author of the study at the University of Florida, suggests that the experiment on 896 participants proved that. But women’s self-esteem was not affected in the same way.
“But this research found evidence that men automatically interpret a partner’s success as their own failure, even when they’re not in direct competition,” Kate said.
After repeating the experiments in the Netherlands and getting the same results, the researchers did two more tests online. Out of 650 U.S. participants, 284 of whom were men. They were asked to think about a time when their partner had succeeded or failed. It was scientific deja vu:
⇒ In situations where a woman surpassed her male partner, both American and Dutchmen had a subconscious drop in self-esteem, contrasting their partner’s achievements with their own losses. Women’s self-esteem was not affected either way.
Reference: https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2013/08/men-self-esteem
https://www.management-issues.com/news/6743/why-men-really-feel-threatened-by-successful-women/
