Gender Equity, as previously discussed, is ensuring equal opportunities, obligations and rights. This term was first tossed at the Beijing platform for Action by Islamic fundamentalists in 1995. Also Vatican followers joined hands who sought to divide their property to their kids according to their needs not equally, in their gender specific roles. According to our study, emotional intelligence plays a crucial role in achieving the forediscussed goal.
Early studies define emotional intelligence as the ability to perceive accurately, appraise, and express emotions; access feelings when they facilitate thought, understand emotions and emotional knowledge and hence regulate emotions to promote emotional and intellectual growth(Mayor and Salovey, 1997).
In another research, Emotional Intelligence(EI) and gender inter relationship is highlighted. EI encompasses 26 abilities and hence is influenced by many factors, out of which one is gender. This effect, as discussed, may be due to both social and biological factors. Social experiments show, females are known to have greater EI than males (Singh, 2002; Ryff, Singer, Wing & Love, 2001).
Pointing out the significance of EQ in males, Daniel Goleman(1995) pointed out that males who have high EQ are socially balanced,friendly and happy. He also highlighted how men with high EQ are not prone to unnecessary fear and worries, have the ability to commit and live by it, carry ethical outlook along with sympathy and create a holistic repertoire. Whereas women are considered more socially responsible than male and are found more attentive to their feelings. Also in this study, he stated females scored higher in interpersonal skills, empathy and social responsibility whereas male scored superior in stress tolerance and self-regard.
Though later Goleman(1998) in his studies affirmed that there is no difference in EQ of both men and women however they vary in strengths in weaknesses. Their profiles of strengths and weaknesses vary differently in different dimensions.
Contradicting Goleman’s theory of equal EQ, Women are more likely to score higher on measures of Emotional Intelligence(Mayer and Geher,1996); Mayer,Caruso, and Salovey,1999). Further justified, females are often exposed to family and job related stressors than their male counterparts because of their engagement as both mothers and professionals(Roxburgh,1996; Simon,1995) They also tend to face gender-specific resistance in efforts to reach the highest positions in organizational hierarchies(Cotton, Hermsen, Ovadia, and Vanneman, 2001). However, as a part of argument, these family responsibilities and gender specific resistance does not emerge in the beginning of the career however they create a hurdle in the later stages of work life. But since middle aged women face challenges than their younger counterparts, which hampers their perceived job control and as a whole their overall productivity.
More recent studies highlight relationship between gender difference and emotional intelligence among 150 adolescents and concluded that girls were found to have higher EI than that of boys(Katal and Awasthi,2005). In another study conducted amongst 234 Iranian students proved the forestated fact that EI of girls is higher than that of the boys(Naghavi,2012)