Into the headwinds: key emotional intelligence capacities that predict women's workplace wellbeing across job roles

Despite decades of organizational investment, women's advancement and workplace wellbeing remain at risk. The emotional intelligence (EQ) capacities that support both have not been examined across job roles at scale. This study identifies which EQ capacities differentiate across women's career levels, are associated with Wellbeing, and how they combine across the career hierarchy.

This study analyzed data from the Six Seconds Emotional Intelligence Assessment (SEI) for 43,080 women across 114 countries (2019-2025), balanced across three global regions (n = 14,360 each) and four career levels (Student, Employee, Management, Senior Executive). Analyses included tercile-based odds ratio analysis, temporal trajectory analysis, within-generation replication (Millennials, n = 21,283), and cross-regional replication.

Five Brain Talents (Commitment, Resilience, Proactivity, Imagination, and Risk Tolerance) formed a Resource Caravan, differentiating career levels (d = 0.56-0.84), while other Brain Talents showed near-zero differentiation. All three-talent combinations from the Caravan predicted Wellbeing (odds ratio [OR] = 5.12-8.62). A Resource Triad of Commitment, Resilience, and Proactivity produced the strongest effect: top-tercile women were 8.62 times more likely to report High Wellbeing (95% confidence interval [CI] [7.96, 9.34]). When Triad scores were high, Wellbeing converged across career levels, with career-level differences substantially narrowing. Women in management were the most vulnerable group, showing the weakest Triad effect (OR = 7.29) and the largest Wellbeing decline among workforce participants (Δ = -1.57). The pattern held across all 7 study years. Within-generation replication indicated that age was not the primary driver. Cross-regional replication confirmed the pattern across Asia, Europe, and North America (ORs = 7.13-9.52).

These findings suggest that targeted development of specific emotional intelligence resources may support Wellbeing for women leaders across career levels.