Women, Ambition & the Profit Silence

In this episode, psychologist and researcher Leila Ainge explores the quiet tension many women experience in business — the space between ambition and the pressure to be “good.” Drawing on findings from Good Girl Economics, her research collaboration with Nicky Denson-Elliott, Leila examines why conversations about profit, visibility, and ambition can feel uncomfortable for women, even in supportive entrepreneurial spaces.

Listeners will hear how gendered expectations and internalised narratives shape pricing decisions, confidence, and self-presentation — and why women often soften their ambition in order to belong. Leila highlights the gap between what women say they value and how they behave in practice, revealing how context, impression management, and identity dynamics influence those choices.

This episode explores:

• The cultural scripts that link likability with being underpaid
• Why “being nice” can quietly undermine business growth
• How impression management and belonging shape what women say (and don’t say) about money
• The emotional labour of performing goodness in business
• How psychological safety influences conversations about profit and success

And as a bonus, listeners also get a first sneak preview of the two goal-setters joining Leila for Season 4 of Psychologically Speaking, where she follows real people working towards their 2026 goals

references and links

Mazzei, L. A. (2003). Inhabited Silences: In Pursuit of a Muffled Subtext. Qualitative Inquiry, 9(3), 355–368.

Morison, T., & Macleod, C. (2014). When veiled silences speak: reflexivity, trouble and repair as methodological tools for interpreting the unspoken in discourse-based data. Qualitative Research: QR, 14(6), 694–711

www.leilaainge.co.uk/research