Download or read book Choosing to Compete written by Alison L. Booth and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Using a controlled experiment, the authors examined the role of nurture in explaining the stylized fact that women shy away from competition. The subjects (students just under 15 years of age) attended publicly-funded single-sex and coeducational schools. Robust differences were found between the competitive choices of girls from single-sex and coed schools. Moreover, girls from single-sex schools behaved more like boys even when randomly assigned to mixed-sex experimental groups. Thus it was not supported that the average female avoids competitive behaviour more than the average male. This suggests that observed gender differences might reflect social learning rather than inherent gender traits.