It's very hard for us to overlook sexual dimorphism in everything we do, and it's not even clear we should. It's however very trendy nowadays to pretend that it doesn't exist, probably for political correctness reasons.
High-achieving men and women are described differently in reviews
11–20 of 90 posts
Re: High-achieving men and women are described differently in reviews
#12Is it possible that professional women are more abrasive than men in aggregate? I am not saying that is the case, only that it is another hypothesis from the data. If that was the case and I had to guess a reason, it would be that groups with more power insecurity tend to overcompensate in other areas. Another explanation could be industry. More women work in Fashion and marketing, which have generally more dramatic…
"More women work in Fashion and marketing, which have generally more dramatic environments."
Do you have data on this?
Re: High-achieving men and women are described differently in reviews
#13The manager’s gender isn’t a factor.
So what's the best way to rearrange corporate structures so that doing well in business doesn't require traits that don't match our cultural ideal for what women should be like? Or would changing cultural ideals be easier (maybe find a way to get hollywood on board)?
I guess I'm assuming here that "I figured only strong performers would be willing to share" is correct, and selected for mostly people who do behave in a mostly-ideal fashion for business success.
Re: High-achieving men and women are described differently in reviews
#14Is it possible that professional women are more abrasive than men in aggregate? I am not saying that is the case, only that it is another hypothesis from the data. If that was the case and I had to guess a reason, it would be that groups with more power insecurity tend to overcompensate in other areas. Another explanation could be industry. More women work in Fashion and marketing, which have generally more dramatic…
This could also be the result of misapplying articles such as this one (http://www.rolereboot.org/culture-and-politics/details/2014-...) where women are taught to be dominant, and say things like "Stop interrupting me", and "I just said that". [Said article was making the rounds on Facebook among my professional female friends recently.]
Topics tend to be rehashed quite a lot in discussion, and sometimes people interrupt one another. It is entirely plausible that this probably affects women more than men. But if someone compensates by saying things like "I just said that", or "Stop interrupting me.", it is not surprising that they would get reviews that label them as abrasive; whereas they might just be trying to be more assertive than usual by following this sort of advice too literally.
Solutions? Perhaps a more holistic approach, where all parties involved are reminded that women might be less assertive, or be dominated in the conversation, and take steps to mitigate this. (Or possibly also being reminded that speaking is not
Re: High-achieving men and women are described differently in reviews
#15Is it possible that professional women are more abrasive than men in aggregate? I am not saying that is the case, only that it is another hypothesis from the data. If that was the case and I had to guess a reason, it would be that groups with more power insecurity tend to overcompensate in other areas. Another explanation could be industry. More women work in Fashion and marketing, which have generally more dramatic…
"More women work in Fashion and marketing, which have generally more dramatic environments." Do you have data on this?
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Re: High-achieving men and women are described differently in reviews
#16Is it possible that professional women are more abrasive than men in aggregate? I am not saying that is the case, only that it is another hypothesis from the data. If that was the case and I had to guess a reason, it would be that groups with more power insecurity tend to overcompensate in other areas. Another explanation could be industry. More women work in Fashion and marketing, which have generally more dramatic…
It's possible, but the likelihood is so low some might wonder why you're bringing that possibility up rather than discuss the much more likely alternative and how we can fix it. Also; "I asked men and women in tech if they would be willing to share their reviews for a study and didn’t stipulate anything else."
Why do you think the likelihood is very small?
Has there been research?
Re: High-achieving men and women are described differently in reviews
#17I'm not surprised by this, but I am surprised that the author didn't mention her past research on this topic. Her shock at the "discovery" seems a little disingenuous.
Re: High-achieving men and women are described differently in reviews
#18Is it possible that professional women are more abrasive than men in aggregate? I am not saying that is the case, only that it is another hypothesis from the data. If that was the case and I had to guess a reason, it would be that groups with more power insecurity tend to overcompensate in other areas. Another explanation could be industry. More women work in Fashion and marketing, which have generally more dramatic…
It's possible, but the likelihood is so low some might wonder why you're bringing that possibility up rather than discuss the much more likely alternative and how we can fix it. Also; "I asked men and women in tech if they would be willing to share their reviews for a study and didn’t stipulate anything else."
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Re: High-achieving men and women are described differently in reviews
#19Is it possible that professional women are more abrasive than men in aggregate? I am not saying that is the case, only that it is another hypothesis from the data. If that was the case and I had to guess a reason, it would be that groups with more power insecurity tend to overcompensate in other areas. Another explanation could be industry. More women work in Fashion and marketing, which have generally more dramatic…
"More women work in Fashion and marketing, which have generally more dramatic environments." Do you have data on this?
Data point: My girlfriend is a tech designer who's worked at Guess, Hot Topic, and a slew of smaller companies. She absolutely loathes the working environment because of the drama and bitterly regrets getting into the industry. She's considering going into customer service in a call center(!) (a 50%+ pay cut) because the work environments are so stressful in the fashion industry. She explicitly blames it on the gender balance being so female-dominated.
Re: High-achieving men and women are described differently in reviews
#20My immediate thought when I saw this a few days ago was "sampling bias" -- not that the author had a biased sample of professional women, but rather that professional women are a biased sample of women. Given the social environment -- pushing both females and males away from what they might have preferred as a life trajectory -- I think it's very likely that the average professional woman is significantly more aggressive than the average professional man, simply because the non-aggressive women tend to not enter professional careers.
This mirrors an observation I've heard from several faculty members in computer science and engineering programs: As complete populations, girls aren't any smarter than boys on average, but in those programs the girls are always among the top students -- because it's only the most exceptional girls who overcome the social factors which keep most of their peers out of those subjects.
There may be a real effect here, but the evidence presented is inconclusive.