Women, Competition, and Relative Performance

Another recent Knowledge@Wharton article considers whether women seek competitive work environments as actively as men -- and whether that plays a role in their professional development. The findings indicate that women may shy away from competition -- even when they know they can win. Additional findings:

• Twice as many men as women are likely to select a tournament setting rather than a non-competitive setting.
• If participants are told only their raw score and not their relative ranking, "men are significantly more overconfident about their relative ranking."
• Women may be more risk-averse than men and more averse to receiving feedback on relative performance.

What do you think? How does this play into whether women reach the top?