Qualities that should help women get ahead at work may also make them targets of suspicion, hostility and exclusion, writes Josie Cox. She questions how meritocratic an organization can be if the people it most values on paper are, in practice, penalized for their abilities.
Cox shares research that shows women with higher cognitive ability get treated worse at work; an unconscious bias that’s not easy to address. Researchers found that women with high cognitive ability were more likely to be perceived by colleagues as hostile and, in one of two studies, as less warm and considerate.
Author Mary Ann Sieghart called this the “authority gap” in the 2023 TEDWomen video also shared here.
<Research> findings suggest the tightrope women walk at work may be even trickier to navigate than was previously thought.”
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Workplace inequality doesn’t always manifest in an unfair promotion decision or a discriminatory performance review. Sometimes, it takes the form of a colleague who is less willing to lend a hand, share information or offer support. What makes this particularly pernicious is how easily its consequences can be overlooked.
Also see: Beyond ‘mean girls’: women-to-women bullying at work, Fast Company, January 29, 2026. Link. Workplace bullying is a leadership issue, not a personality problem. A growing body of research suggests that some of the most persistent and damaging workplace bullying experienced by women comes not only from men, but surprisingly, from other women.
Image: Link.
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