Self perception of women and their courageousness : some implications for pragmatic management

Courage is often equated in popular culture all over the world with acts of bravery, usually exhibited in combat or dangerous situations and presumably by mainly ‘manly’ men. In this study 750 women were asked to choose up to but no more than 6 characteristics out of a list of 39 that they felt best described them. Only 11% selected the word courageous, self identified courageous women were very similar to women who did not identify themselves as being courageous. This has both interesting philosophical and pragmatic implications. The paper examines the concept and characteristics of different types of courage, and comments on the implications for management and for courage-building education and training for both groups.