Which is shorter, your index finger or your ring finger? If you’re a woman, and you’re ring finger is longer than your index, you’re apparently more likely to be in a power position at work.

The Daily Mail reports that research from the National Research University in Russia has found that women whose index fingers were short compared to their ring fingers were more likely to have jobs traditionally regarded as “male.” Conversely, women whose index fingers were longer than their ring fingers were more likely to be employed in so called “female” careers.

Examples of “male” jobs usually include lawyer, police chief, CEO, judge, that sort of thing. “Female” jobs, on the other hand, are things like nursing and teaching.

This finger ratio – known as the 2D:4D (second digit: fourth digit) ratio – is related to the amount of testosterone to which the fetus is exposed in utero. Those with a shorter 2D:4D ratio were apparently exposed to more testosterone than those with a longer 2D:4D ratio. The subject pops up in the news regularly.

The Mail reports that researchers analyzed data from 1,500 men and women whose fingers were measured using digital calipers. Significant differences in the 2D:4D were found only in women and mainly on the left hand.

    “Professor John Nye, who led the study, said: ‘For women, it is now known that those with high exposure to prenatal testosterone are more likely to show greater confidence, aggressiveness, and risk-taking.

    ‘But how it affects jobs is unclear – are women with these characteristics more likely to pick those jobs or do cultural norms select for or against women (or men) with certain characteristics? We don’t know.

    ‘That’s why it’s important to do these studies in different cultures with different ethnic groups and in very different conditions to figure out what’s driving what.’”

In more finger-length news, a new study from the University of Oxford reportedly found evidence that people whose ring fingers were longer than their index finger were more likely to cheat on their partners than those with similar length digits.

And research from McGill shows evidence that men with shorter ring fingers are also reportedly kinder to women, also supposedly due to having been exposed to less testosterone in the womb.