We were delighted to co-host an event last night to celebrate International Women’s Day. This event, which was attended by 150 women from the business and professional world, was co-hosted with McDowell Purcell.

At the event renowned psychologist, author and broadcaster Maureen Gaffney spoke on ‘Gender Intelligence’.

According to Dr. Gaffney, ‘Gender Intelligence’ now needs to be added to the portfolio of competencies necessary for individual and business success.  Citing the more than 100 differences researchers have found between men and womens' brains and how they work, she says a lack of understanding and awareness of how the male and female brains work differently is hindering very necessary progress in gender equality.

“Poor gender intelligence can create a lack of understanding in the way men and women relate in their personal and work lives,” said Dr. Gaffney. “It can result in unhappy relationships and non-optimum recruitment and promotion practices, resulting in the underuse of women’s strengths and talents, particularly at senior level. It also deprives organisations of the critical competitive advantage that gender intelligence confers.”

Here are 5 of the gender differences that we should be aware of:

  1. Men organise themselves in hierarchies while women organise themselves in networks
  2. Women talk for rapport – men talk for information
  3. Women apologise even when they know they did nothing wrong while men frequently struggle to apologise
  4. Womens' brains are more connected, so it takes them a little longer to process information – the output though allows them to think around corners.
  5. Women apply for jobs only when they tick all the boxes. Men apply when they tick just one.   

Finally, according to Dr. Gaffney gender differences are exaggerated when we are under pressure. This is another good reason why all of us, working in the business and professional world need to learn more about gender intelligence.

In advance of the event Dr. Gaffney was interviewed by Ivan Yates for NewsTalk on gender intelligence. Listen back to her interview here.