New study reveals first-born women are more likely to succeed

ARE you a first-born woman? A new study shows that you’ve got an automatic leg up in life. Eldest female children are more likely to succeed. Here’s why.

Oprah Winfrey, 13th on Forbes list of the World’s Most Powerful Women is an eldest child.

FIRST-BORN children are alleged to have it rough. They moan that their parents are more strict, they have earlier curfews and more responsibilities compared to their younger siblings, who are often spoiled.

But a recent study reveals that first-borns may actually have an automatic leg up in life when it comes to success. The radical new study, by the Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of Essex, demonstrates statistical evidence to show that first-born women are more likely to be more ambitious and successful than their younger siblings.

Eldest female children are 13 per cent more likely to aspire to tertiary education than first-born boys, reports The Australian.

The study concluded that girls tend to have higher aspirations, which is expected to urge them toward higher education levels, and they are four per cent more likely to achieve tertiary education qualifications.

Angela Merkel, Hillary Clinton, Christine Largarde, Oprah Winfrey, Sheryl Sandberg, Beyonce and JK Rowling are all successful first-born children.

Oprah Winfrey, 13th on Forbes list of the World’s Most Powerful Women is an eldest child. Coincidence or not?

But there’s good news for first-born men too.

First-born men, including President Obama, Mick Jagger and Bill Clinton, are the next most successful cohort. All 12 men to have walked on the Moon were either eldest or only children, reports The Australian.

The study also found that children were more likely to be high achievers if parents spaced their children four years apart.

The study, by Feifei Bu, analysed sibling data from 3,552 brothers and sisters in Britain.

“Birth order has a direct effect on an individual’s educational attainment,” the study concluded. “Specifically that first-borns tend to achieve a higher educational level than their later-born siblings.”

Ms Bu said there were “several possible explanations” for the high attainment of eldest children. “It could be that the parents simply devote more time and energy to them,” she told The Observer. “It could be that they are actually more intelligent. I tend to lean toward the theory that parental investment is possibly at work here,” reports The Australian.

“The larger the age gap between the children, the better the qualifications.”

There were no substantial differences found within families with two children or less.

View the full study here.