Women with straight As in high school have same leadership prospects as men with failing grades

4 February, 2021

The relationship between good grades in high school and future leadership responsibilities in the workplace is stronger for men than it is for women, a new UBC study has found.

The difference is particularly striking among those who have grown up to become parents, according to the study published recently in the academic journal Social Forces. Fathers with perfect high school grades supervised more than four times as many employees, on average, as mothers with equally stellar grades (19-4). But at the lowest levels of high school GPA, fathers supervised only slightly more people than mothers (4-3).

“Before they become parents, the relationship between high school GPA and leadership at work is similar for men and women. After they become parents, men start to reap a lot of the leadership returns from their academic achievement, but women do not,” said Dr. Yue Qian, PhD, an assistant professor in UBC’s sociology department who conducted the study with colleague Dr. Jill Yavorsky from the University of North Carolina Charlotte.

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