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Forget the soft approach, ladies should behave like men if they want to work in male-dominated industries, according to a controversial study.

The advice was given by female psychologist, Ann Marie Ryan, who claims women applicants should 'play up their masculine qualities' in job interviews.

Her research suggests recruiters prefer more masculine traits to the 'warmth', 'supportiveness' and 'nurturing' commonly associated with women.

Forget the soft approach, ladies should behave like men if they want to work in male-dominated industries, according to a controversial study. The advice was given by female psychologist, Ann Marie Ryan, who claims women applicants should 'play up their masculine qualities' in job interviews

Professor Ann Marie Ryan of Michigan State University conducted an experiment with volunteers for the research journal Psychology of Women Quarterly.

She asked women to apply for leadership roles in male-dominated industries such as engineering in front of a panel of volunteers asked to evaluate the candidates' suitability.

Some of the women were asked to emphasise supposed masculine-like traits such as assertiveness, independence and raw ambition.

Others were asked to display more feminine traits, in this case defined as warmth, supportiveness and a nurturing nature.

As part of the tests, the panel - irrespective of the gender of those sitting on it - decided that leadership required more dominant and assertive traits to be shown during the interview process

Professor Ryan said: 'We found that manning up seemed to be an effective strategy because it was seen as necessary for the job.'

The panel, irrespective of the gender of those sitting on it, decided that leadership required more dominant and assertive traits to be shown during the interview process.

The study is part of Professor Ryan's research into why women, ethnic minorities, the disable and the elderly are discriminated against in society and what they can do to avoid it.

Though it may seem wrong for women to act like men in order to succeed. Professor Ryan said it may help candidates overcome an obvious bias in the very early stages or recruitment.

She said: 'Companies and recruiters should make sure they are not exhibiting discriminatory screening practices.

'There's a lot of advice out there for applicants to help combat this type of bias, but our research is aimed at figuring out what kind of advice is beneficial and what kind of advice may harm you.'

MANY MEN ARE 'SECRET FEMINISTS' BUT ARE TOO AFRAID TO SPEAK UP

The amount of women in executive positions at Fortune 500 companies has remained at a dismal 15 per cent.

Only last month UN investigator Rashida Manjoo declared that the UK has a ‘boys' club sexist culture’ with sexism work in Britain than any other place.

Part of the problem, according to psychologists, is that many men are in fact ‘secret feminists’ but are afraid to speak up because their motives may be misread.

Adam Grant, a professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, highlights the fact that in conversation about women in leadership, male voices are noticeably absent.

For instance, of Amazon’s 100 top-selling books this week about women and business, only four were written by men.