Women Who Had Straight A's In High School Have Same Leadership Prospects As Men Who Failed

A new study shows that high school grades don’t really affect your future leadership potential — as long as you’re a man

For as much glass-ceiling smashing as we’ve been doing in recent years, there are still so many disparities between the opportunities afforded to men and women in the U.S. A new study shows that in a different light, looking at how high school grades affect a person’s leadership potential later in their career. And the fact is that whether they get straight A’s or fail all their classes, men are more likely to end up leaders than women.

The study, done by UBC and published recently in the academic journal Social Forces, showed that men who got perfect grades in high school supervised, on average, 19 people, compared to just 4 people supervised by women who also got perfect grades.

Maybe the most depressing part of the entire survey was the part that showed that men who got failing grades in high school still had just as much leadership potential as women who got straight A’s. Men who failed all their high school classes supervised, on average, 4 people — the same as women who got perfect grades. Wonderful.

It’s just more evidence that men can do nothing — less than the bare minimum — and women will have to bust their asses to keep up. Don’t believe me? See the 2016 election, and Hillary Clinton vs. Donald Trump.

“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,” the study’s co-author, Dr. Yue Qian, PhD., wrote.

The study followed nearly 5,000 people who were born between 1957 and 1964. Researchers kept records of the participants’ high school transcripts and grades, and followed them in their later careers. They found that as a participant’s GPA rose from zero to 4.0, men went from supervising just 4 people to more than 13, while women went from supervising 2 people to 5.

The study attributed some of the differences to the career hits women take when they become mothers. Women are overall more likely to take parental leave or reduce their hours, which can hold back their careers because capitalism is a racket.

“Many gender research scholars have found that the ‘gender revolution’ has stalled in recent years, especially since the 1990s in the U.S.,” Dr. Qian wrote. “The female employment rate, gender wage gaps, segregation of occupations, and women’s access to leadership positions are all areas where it shows.”