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Estrogen fuels female power
Much has been said about the role of testosterone
in male dominance, and many studies attest to the power-enhancing
effects of this hormone in men. But what about women’s need
for dominance? Is there any evidence for a hormonal basis of female
power seeking, too?
Until recently, clear-cut research findings
that could have answered this question were sorely missing, even
leading some researchers to doubt that women have a biologically
anchored need for dominance like men do. But new research by the
University of Michigan’s Steven Stanton and Oliver Schultheiss
now suggests that the sex hormone estrogen may be for women what
testosterone is for men: the fuel of power.
Stanton and Schultheiss measured women’s
need for power and then assessed salivary estrogen levels both
before and after they entered a one-on-one dominance contest.
The researchers found that even before women got involved in the
contest, higher power motivation was associated with higher levels
of estrogen. Winners of the contest showed even further increases
in estrogen after the contest, but only if they had a strong need
for power. Notably, this increase could still be detected one
day after the contest was over. In contrast, power-motivated losers
showed a post-contest decrease in estrogen. These effects were
not observed among women who did not possess a strong need for
power.
Says Steven Stanton, author of the study which
was published in a recent issue of the journal ’Hormones
and Behavior’: “Women have long been overlooked in biological
research on dominance. Using a male model, the small body of existing
research has struggled to link testosterone to dominance motivation
and behavior in women. However, estrogen is very behaviorally
potent and is actually a close hormonal relative to testosterone.
In female mammals, estrogen has been tied to dominance, but there
has been scant research examining the behavioral roles of estrogen
in women. Thus, we were excited by our findings, because they
show that specifically estradiol (and not testosterone) is related
to power motivation in women, and pave the way for future research
on the biology of dominance in women.” His co-author Oliver
Schultheiss adds: “Our findings perfectly parallel what
we have observed for power motivation and testosterone in men.
In men, power motivation is associated with heightened levels
of testosterone, particularly after a contest victory. In women,
estrogen appears to be the critical hormone for power motivation.”
Thus, it appears that some may have written
off a biological basis for female power prematurely. For women,
just like men, the lust for power involves the release of sex
hormones.
High-testosterone people reinforced by others’ anger, new study finds (February 2007)
Study finds US students more motivated to achieve, less power-hungry than German students (August 2006)
Are all people stressed out by a defeat or does it hurt some more than others? (April 2006)
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