A recent study out of the University of Florida found that a woman’s success made her partner feel worse about himself, even though the men who participated weren’t even aware that their self-esteem had been affected in this way. Not too surprising is that the women in the study were unaffected by their partner’s successes or failures.
The lead author of the study, Kate Ratliff attributed the results to the different ways that men and women respond to competition. Males are more competitive, apparently even with their mates- and this study shines a light on how men perceive their partner’s success as their failure, regardless of whether they were in a direct competition or not. The study also theorized that that the men (from the US and Netherlands) might have been reacting to culturally reinforced expectations of traditional roles in which the male is dominant- and would therefore be threatened by a woman who was elevated by success.
It’s notable that the age of the subjects were college age to 30 years old- yet they still held on to many of the old norms that say the man should take the lead and be the primary earner. This is especially interesting as recent statistics show that 28% of American women now earn more than their husbands. As the roles continue to change and evolve it may be that women will become the ones who are telling the world that “behind every great woman, stands a supportive husband.”