Jewish World Review May 31, 2005 / 22 Iyar 5765
Betsy Hart
A self-imposed
gender gap
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Now here's a topic that could have really gotten Harvard President
Larry Summers in trouble (he's the one who said it's a question
worth pursuing as to whether women have the gray matter for
science): A recent draft study shows that women may have a
self-imposed "gender-gap" when it comes to competition.
It seems that women are just not as competitive as men. In a study
conducted by Muriel Niederle and Lise Vesterlund (of Stanford and
the University of Pittsburgh, respectively), women just didn't
choose to compete like the men did. In one experiment, women and men
were each paid a small sum per piece to solve math problems. Both
the men and women did fine. But for the next round of the
experiments, they could choose to compete in tournaments where they
would make a great deal more for correct answers, and nothing for
wrong ones, or stay with the guaranteed piece rate. Overwhelmingly,
the men chose the competition, and the women chose to stay with the
sure thing.
In a previous experiment focusing on how women perform in
competitive environments, particularly against men, lead researcher
Niederle had determined not only that women didn't like competition,
but that they didn't perform as well when subjected to it. As the
researchers in that study put it, "women may be less effective than
men in competitive environments, even if they are able to perform
similarly in non-competitive environments."
That study appeared in the Quarterly Journal of Economics (August
2003.) There the researchers found, "In a laboratory experiment we
observe, as we increase the competitiveness of the environment, a
significant increase in performance for men, but not for women." The
researchers conducted a series of other experiments that also caused
them to theorize that in addition to being less competitive against
men, women were more risk averse.
Drum roll please ... Duh. Men are generally more competitive than
women and are bigger risk takers. This requires a study? In today's
politically correct gender environment the answer is apparently
"yes."
Writer John Tierney recently and as he often does, bravely
took on the most recent of these experiments in a column in
the New York Times. He talked about the impact of these findings on
what we know about women in the workplace, but then he seemed to
suggest that workplaces would generally be better off if they
weren't as competitive. That in fact women had a rather more
wholesome view of life for not being so competitive.
Let's back up. First, I'd suggest we ask the question what
happens when there's something women really want? Have you ever seen
7th grade girls competing to be the Queen Bee? There are few places
more competitive than an all-girls high school, and how about when
women want the same man as in, "The Bachelor." Uh, yeah, we can be
competitive.
I'm not making light of my sisters I'm just saying we have it
in us to be competitive when we want what's at stake, though we may
never compete quite as intensely as guys do. And in fact, the
earlier experiments conducted by Niederle show just that. Women can
be quite competitive against other women. But in general,
we're still not as competitive as the guys. (Let's please remember
than any one woman can buck this trend. I have known some pretty
aggressive gals when it comes to standing up against the guys, in
and out of the workplace.)
Anyway, as more gender differences are studied, and more of them
seem to be pretty ingrained if not innate, look for more and more
commentators to suggest that the entire culture of the workplace
should be changed to better accommodate women's temperaments and
"cooperative style."
In any event, why one would think that being "cooperative" rather
than "competitive" is always a good thing is beyond me. I mean it's
in large part due to intense competition and being able to
compete freely that we have, oh, western civilization.
But I do think the current superiority of the "cooperative" notion
has something to do with the idea that that description tends to
apply to women, and these days the world has sort of a "man bad
woman good" view of things.
To the extent we women compete differently or compete for different
things, or just want different things, does not make us better. It
does mean men and women might be, in general, different and
that we need those differences for all of us to thrive.
I think it's unfortunate we should need scholarly studies to tell us
that.
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