WLA 2018 Report - Draft 1-2

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Female students at ALU are less confident than their male peers An 8 year study by Wiebke Bleidorn, Ph.D. (2015) which looked at data from over 985,000 men and women across 48 countries found that universally, men are more confident than women. Interestingly, the study found that the magnitude of this confidence gap between men and women was bigger in more developed, egalitarian countries. The researcher speculates that women in developed countries are more likely to compare themselves to men, who still hold more power universally. Confidence can be defined as our belief in our ability to succeed at a given task. A lack of it drives risk aversion and makes one less willing to pursue new challenges and making one more cautious in their career ambitions ultimately leading to missed opportunities. “ While having more confident women won’t eliminate the unconscious bias or stop more self-assured outspoken women being called bossy or bitchy (where men are simply labeled assertive). However, it will empower more women to call out bias when they see it, put themselves forward and take more risks that men do. This will see more women moving up the ladder which, in turn, will provide the more much needed role models, mentors, sponsors and inspiration for women following below.” - Margie Warrell, Author at Forbes 12
Majority of students at ALU believe that confidence is crucial to success. While 60% of students rate males and females as equally confident on average, only 3.5% students rate women as more confident. This is in stark contrast to the 23% of respondents who rate men as more confident. On a similar note, female students believe that their confidence is highly affected by the ALU environment and culture. Females also feel more pressure to perform as well as their peers than their male counterparts and feel significantly less accomplished than their peers. Thus, it can be concluded that female students at ALU are less confident than their male peers owing to their belief that they’re not as accomplished as their peers. Since ALU’s environment has more of an effect on females’ confidence, this can be leveraged to actively increase their confidence. Key Next Steps Since ALU’s environment has more of an effect on females’ confidence, this can be leveraged to actively increase their confidence. Confidence is a very personal and as such, the development of it has to be driven by the individual. However, ALU can actively create spaces where both male and female students are can discuss their various ambitions, form plans to achieve them and actively overcome internal challenges, such as confidence, and external ones. This could be by bringing back Advisory Squads with more structure such that the above can be implemented and measured. Notably, research has shown that confidence is volitional (ie: it can be built) with consistent effort (Warrel, 2015). Thus, with intentional effort, the confidence gap between male and female students can be narrowed. 13
Page 2 and 3: A N f WLA’ F WLA was founded by 3
Page 4 and 5: Executive summary 5 Gender landscap
Page 6 and 7: Executive Summary The McKinsey Glob
Page 8 and 9: Overall Gender Landscape at ALU The
Page 10 and 11: Brief History of State of African W
Page 14 and 15: Male students are more comfortable
Page 16 and 17: No gender disparity in risk-taking
Page 18 and 19: Unconscious bias are prevalent and
Page 20 and 21: In teams, females take support role
Page 22 and 23: Female students believe they don’
Page 24 and 25: Methodology The report is grounded
Page 26 and 27: 3 Female Students predominantly in
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WLA 2018 Report - Draft 1-2

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