Female executives, who were vastly outnumbered by their male counterparts over a nine-year period, were also more likely to lose or leave their jobs, according to a recent study.

Oregon State professor John Becker-Blease said the research, which studied Standard & Poor’s 1,500 companies, suggests that as a board of directors gains more male members, it is more likely to fire women than men. Still, there may be other factors in play other than gender discrimination, he said – possibly the female executives didn’t have as much experience, or their bosses perceived them as less capable than potential male executives.

The study is in October’s issue of Economic Inquiry.

Group think

A recent study found that having super-smart group members did not have a significant effect on how well a group did on brainstorming ideas, solving word games and math problems or completing small projects.

Instead, groups did better when they had members with higher levels of “social sensitivity,” said study author Christopher Chabris, a psychology professor at New York’s Union College. And the people likeliest to display such a trait were women. The researchers tested 669 people in Boston and Pittsburgh. Results were published in an online issue of Science.