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Women are over-apologizing — It’s more complex than you might think
Researchers say women apologize more often because workplace expectations reward caution and penalize assertiveness, with only 29% of C-suite roles held by women in 2025.
- Executive assistant Ally Hall and sales worker Gabriela Cryan in Georgia exemplify women's tendency to apologize unnecessarily in the workplace, even when not at fault, fearing they burden colleagues.
- Psychologist Stephen Hinshaw of the University of California, Berkeley, identifies an 'impossible set of expectations' placed on girls, creating a 'triple bind' requiring them to be compassionate, competitive, and desirable simultaneously.
- A 2010 study coauthored by Schumann introduced the 'threshold hypothesis,' revealing men report a higher threshold than women for what they deem offensive and requiring apology.
- Women remain cautious about being 'appropriately assertive' to avoid breaking gender stereotypes, while data from McKinsey & Company and LeanIn.org shows only 29% of women held C-suite roles in 2025, unchanged from the prior year.
- Hinshaw suggests adopting a 'humble stance' to learn from others regardless of gender, arguing 'the humble stance may prevent the over-apologizing and the overacting or overselling' across all workplaces.
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Leaning Left0Leaning Right0Center24Last UpdatedBias Distribution100% Center
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100% Center
C 100%
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