Gender Differences in Achievement

Another example of the importance of Murray’s pioneering work on the
need for achievement comes from research on how this need is demonstrated
differently by men and women. It had been evident for many years that the expression of achievement was more acceptable for men than for
women. It has only been in recent years that the issues surrounding the
achievement of women have been investigated. It is clear that these issues, in
general, have been experienced much differently by women from the way
they have been experienced by men. The paths for understanding and expressing
ideas of achievement for men and women clearly differ very early
in life. A series of studies supports the idea that women with a high need for
achievement come from relatively stressful and difficult home lives, whereas
men with a similar level of achievement strivings come from supportive,
nonstressful homes. Additionally, girls tend to evidence their needs for
achievement because of a desire for adult approval, while boys do not demonstrate
this motivation.

One of the more interesting, as well as distressing, findings regarding sex
differences in the need for achievement comes from the research of Matina
Horner. She found that women experience considerable conflict and distress
when faced with their need to achieve, whereas men do not experience
a similar state. She proposed that the “smart girl” faced the prospect of considerable
loss of social status and peer rejection as a result of her strivings to
achieve. This may result in the behavior of acting “dumb” in order to prosper
socially. Horner elaborated on Sigmund Freud’s original idea that
women actually may fear success because of its social consequences.
In a famous study by Horner, she had men and women write a story after
being given an opening line. The women were to write a story about a
woman who found herself at the top of her medical school class after the
first semester. The men had the same story, except that it was a man who was
at the top of the class. Far more women wrote stories of the unappealing and
sometimes tragic consequences for the smart woman in class. They wrote
about possible rejections and losses of friends and indicated that she would
have a poorer chance of getting married. Many of the women came up with
situations related to removing the student from the conflict situation, such
as dropping out of medical school or settling for becoming a nurse. Finally,
some of the students even indicated that she might receive bodily harm as a
result of her stellar performance.

The conflicting messages of society regarding achievement for women
are clearly shown by this study. It is apparent that women face considerable
struggles in their attempts to compete and achieve equally with men. The
factors that will alleviate this internal distress and aid women in the full
expression of their abilities await further investigation. It was Murray’s
pioneering study of human needs that laid the groundwork for these types
of investigation, which have the potential to inspire long-overdue social
changes.