Do Women Handle Pressure Better than Men at Workplaces? Women are stronger than men when the pressure is on says a new study

From action films to advertisements of cola, men are often pictured as macho figures who can make or break any situation with panache.

This depiction has made the world believe men from all walks of life are not only stronger and heroic but can function better than women.

To much relief, a new study breaks this myth, and well quite fantastically.

The researchers at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, analyzed the performance of both male and female tennis players during the Grand Slam tournaments and found women fared better under pressure.

Women are stronger than men when the pressure is on

In a recent interview with the Harvard Business Review, researcher Alex Krumer explained that the team behind the study decided to focus on performance under pressure in tennis because of the clarity of the data.

"Tennis is a sport in which it's very easy to measure performance and competitive pressure. There's a clear winner of every point, game, set, and match, and you can assess the extent to which victory in a particular game--when the score is, say, 1-1, 3-1, or 5-0--affects the probability of winning the match," Krumer explained.

So what did the researchers find when they looked to see whose performance was affected by intensely high pressure situations? The data were conclusive. "We can confidently say that in the world of elite tennis, women are better under pressure than men are. They choke less," Krumer declared.

Is this applicable outside tennis?

It is undoubtedly a fascinating find for tennis fans to know that women are not mere emotional flower buds when it comes to challenges in their way, but does it have anything to teach those in the business world?

To know more on this, we got in touch with a few women leaders who gave a holistic view on how women are better at managing pressure at workplaces.

"Women are used to being resourceful given they invariably have fewer hours to complete more tasks they tend to more naturally endowed with abilities to prioritize. By being more emotionally endowed, they can be empathetic, more observant and balanced at drawing conclusions from complex situations," said Summi Gambir, Co-founder, GlobalLinker.

"Given this is a very individual driven consideration and a set of generalized assumptions, I would be very comfortable in putting forth a modified statement – "all things being equal, generally, women are favorably endowed at better managing pressure than men at workplaces'," she added.

At the Global Entrepreneurship Summit 2017, Entrepreneur India asked the current Mrs India Universe International, Rumana Sinha Sehgal, about what puts women ahead in the race over men. Being a social entrepreneur herself, she finds the question an easy one.

"I think women are the architects of change, they are multi-tasking. It's so easy to map my mind to our heart. That's what put us ahead of the men."

Though this one study obviously doesn't state anything outside tennis, it goes without saying women are breaking the glass ceiling worldwide and trying to outdo men in different roles.

Whether women work better under pressure or no, all entrepreneurs will agree business is no less than an adventurous sport.