New research from Dr Julio Mancuso Tradenta, Senior Lecturer in Economics, and a team of international researchers has revealed that women are up to five times less likely to self-promote than men.
“Despite extensive global efforts towards gender equality, women continue to face disadvantages when it comes to showcasing their positive actions and attributes in the workplace,” he says.
Dr Mancuso Tradenta says central to this issue is the social expectation of modesty.
“We found that the difference in self-promotion was largely driven by women’s concerns about being seen as immodest,” he explains. “This reluctance can significantly undermine women’s visibility and recognition in areas such as the job market, leadership, political participation, and other forms of social engagement.”
Self-promotion can also carry the risk of backlash for women, who are often socially and professionally penalised for violating gendered expectations of modesty.
“This creates an additional barrier to achieving equitable recognition and success,” he adds.
The relevance of self-promotion is particularly pronounced in organisational settings, where effectively communicating prosocial behaviour can influence career advancement, performance evaluations and job opportunities.
For instance, prosociality, typically defined as voluntary behaviour intended to benefit others, has been shown to positively influence labour market outcomes. A study involving 80,000 individuals across 76 countries identified it as a strong predictor of career success.
As a result, the gender gap in self-promotion continues to reinforce inequality by limiting women’s ability to communicate their valuable contributions effectively.
So, how can organisations help redress this imbalance?
Dr Mancuso Tradenta says that one way to address the gender gap is through professional development programs.
“This could help individuals navigate modesty norms by building awareness of effective communication strategies.”
“We are exploring the design of a real-world workplace intervention to assess the impact of providing socially acceptable justifications for self-promotion in professional settings.”
“This would allow us to assess whether the mechanism found effective in our experimental study, providing a socially acceptable justification for self-promotion, yields similar benefits in everyday organisational contexts, such as staff recognition processes, performance evaluations, or peer feedback.”
