The double bind, yet again

[astra_nomer]

I can't recall if I ever got around to posting a review of the book "Women Don't Ask" by Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever. It's very good reading, looking into how women are conditioned to avoid negotiation, and end up losing out because of it. It's a strong driving force behind the gender pay gap.

One would think that the solution would be to encourage women to stand up for themselves, be more assertive, and go out of their way to get what they want. But you'd be wrong.

This article from today's Post refers to a new study that shows that when women do ask for more, they get penalized for it. This conclusion shouldn't be terribly shocking - it's the same old saw about assertive women being perceived as bitches, even though the exact same behavior in men is not only accepted, but rewarded. However, it certainly helps explain why women are reluctant to ask for more in the first place.

It's evidence like this that shows that it's not women's fault that we aren't getting ahead - there are serious cultural hurdles that we need to overcome in order to be successful.

Comments

[gigglefest.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I started reading some of the relevant articles online recently when I was considering negotiation. I hadn't thought about this question at all before. Something that just occurred to me though (and this is completely unfounded, just a thought): I wonder if this is sort of like management? How women don't necessarily do well when they try to just adopt men's managerial tactics outright, but can manage quite well when given the same goals ("get these people under you to produce", or whatever) and allowed to do that their own way? The ordering around vs. relational thing.

Now, I know part of women's hesitation to negotiate is that relational thing. So maybe this doesn't hold at all. But I wonder if there are better and worse ways for any particular individual to negotiate, given their preferred ways of dealing/working with people.