Monday, July 30, 2007

You Have to Ask

Interesting.

About 10 years ago, a group of graduate students lodged a complaint with Linda C. Babcock, a professor of economics at Carnegie Mellon University : All their male counterparts in the university’s PhD program were teaching courses on their own, whereas the women were working only as teaching assistants.

That mattered, because doctoral students who teach their own classes get more experience and look better prepared when it comes time to go on the job market.

When Babcock took the complaint to her boss, she learned there was a very simple explanation: “The dean said each of the guys had come to him and said, ‘I want to teach a course,’ and none of the women had done that,” she said. “The female students had expected someone to send around an e-mail saying, ‘Who wants to teach?’ ” The incident prompted Babcock to start systematically studying gender differences when it comes to asking for pay raises, resources or promotions. And what she found was that men and women are indeed often different when it comes to opening negotiations.

These differences, Babcock and other researchers have concluded, may partially explain the persistent gender gap in salaries, as well as other disparities in how people rise to the top of organizations.

[...]

The traditional explanation for the gender differences that Babcock found is that men are simply more aggressive than women, perhaps because of a combination of genetics and upbringing. The solution to gender disparities, this school of thought suggests, is to train women to be more assertive and to ask for more.

(9) Comments
Posted by Owen at 0657 hrs
Culture

  1. It’s always good to start with actual data when you tackle big issues.  Another good one is in anything written by Deborah Tannen on the difference between male and female use of language.  If you’re married, you definitely want to read this. :^)

    hiho
    Mp

    Posted by Mpeterson on July 30, 2007 at 0944 hrs


  2. Just look at something as common place as dating… men generally do the asking.  Some women are offended at the notion of having to ask out a guy.  This results of this study should not have been a shocker.

    Posted by Nick on July 30, 2007 at 0946 hrs


  3. I’ve been saying this for years.

    In my experience, woman who think they are doing a good job are surprised that someone doesn’t offer them more money as a reward. What they don’t realize is that NO business just gives money to someone if they don’t have to. You have to ask for it.

    Posted by elliot on July 30, 2007 at 1012 hrs


  4. Holy cow!  You mean men and women are different?  They think differently, the react differently, they handle things differently?  Who’da thunk it!  Pfft!  rolleyes

    Posted by Kate on July 30, 2007 at 1020 hrs


  5. My husband and I must be completely opposite of this study.  I am the one that is constantly asking, either for the attention of our priest or other people in high-up positions (he always jokes that I could convince the President to come over for dinner if I asked him).  Whereas my husband (and his mother is much the same way), don’t ask but often want others to come to them.  They are usually frustrated with my ability to convince our priest to do something, or to be able to get the ear of someone whom they rarely approach, but this does seem to explain a lot about the whole thing.

    Posted by Shana on July 30, 2007 at 1103 hrs


  6. Can I please have a million dollars?

    Can I please take a vacation?

    Nope.  Doesn’t work.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 30, 2007 at 1226 hrs


  7. Be more aggressive Wendy.  Don’t say please, you deserve that million dollar vacation.  Now go in their and ‘do not think…do.’  I am sure it will work!

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 30, 2007 at 1505 hrs


  8. OK, who read the entire article? Did anyone see the part at the end where women that negotiate were seen as less desirable to work with? Does anyone think that might make them less likely to be hired?

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 31, 2007 at 1212 hrs


  9. Yeah, I read it and that is true discrimination.  The type that is taught to everyone at basic levels and the hardest to erase if indeed we wish to.  Do we really want to foster unisexism and hide the differences between the sexes?  It may be chauvinistic and I may have to apologize for it, but I don’t ever want to meet a guy as sweet and cute as my wife.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 31, 2007 at 1333 hrs


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