Women Balance on the Negotiation Tightrope to Avoid Backlash

Women less frequently negotiate initial salaries than men, leading to a long-term wage disparity, reported Carnegie-Mellon University’s Linda Babcock. Women who did negotiate were negatively evaluated by both men and women participants in a lab study, found Harvard’s Hannah Riley Bowles and Lei Lai. These volunteers reported less desire to work with women who asked for […]

Women’s Likeability–Competence Dilemma: Overcoming the Backlash Effect

Women face workplace challenges when they “succeed” in traditionally-male roles, found New York University’s Madeline Heilman, Aaron Wallen, Daniella Fuchs and Melinda Tamkins. They found that woman who are recognized as successful in roles dominated by men, are less liked than equally successful men in the same fields. Successful women managers avoided interpersonal hostility, dislike, and […]

Women Who Express Anger Seen as Less Influential

Women who expressed anger were less likely to influence their peers in computer-mediated mock jury proceedings, found Arizona State University’s Jessica Salerno and Liana Peter-Hagene of University of Illinois.  More than 200 U.S. jury-eligible volunteers reviewed opening arguments and closing statements, eyewitness testimonies, crime scene photographs, and an image of the alleged weapon in a homicide. Participants made individual […]

Activate Women’s, Minorities’ Stereotype Threat Reactance to Enhance Performance

Stereotype threat occurs when stereotyped group members receive expectations of the group’s expected behavior. Typically, stereotype threat reduces performance among stereotyped group members. Stanford’s Claude Steele and Joshua Aronson now of NYU, helped women and African American participants resist these stereotypes.In these conditions, participants’ performance improved more than when the researchers activated a positive shared […]

Women May Undermine Salary Negotiations with Excessive Gratitude

Candid self-disclosure hurt women’s salary negotiation outcomes when they disclosed that a salary that exceeded their expectations in a study by Monash University’s Andreas Leibbrandt and John A. List of the University of Chicago. Some women applying for administrative assistant jobs were told that the wages were “negotiable,” and these women negotiated higher pay by […]

When Do Women Talk More than Men?

Women talk more than men. Women talk less than men. -*Which is true? It depends. Context and expectations of the individual and others determine when females talk more than males, according to NYU’s Kay Deaux and Brenda Major of University of California Santa Barbara. Participants equipped with digital “sociometers” recorded identities of people nearby and talk […]

Do Women Advance in Careers More Slowly than Men?

Men received 15% more promotions than women, according to a Catalyst Benchmarking Survey. Similar numbers of “high potential” women and men were selected for lateral moves to other parts of the business. However, men but not women, received promotions after the career-developing lateral moves. Women’s developmental lateral moves were substitutes for actual career advancement, suggested INSEAD’s Hermina Ibarra […]

Male Peer Raters Discount Women’s Expertise in Science, Engineering

Problem-solving work groups and individual career development benefit from accurate recognition and deployment of expertise. People who are perceived as experts by team members, regardless of their actual expertise, have a number of career advantages, found Washington University’s J. Stuart Bunderson: Greater influence in group decision-making, More opportunities to perform, Great opportunity for team leadership […]

When Women Predominate in Groups: Stigma Contagion

Women in Engineering or Information Technology organizations may find themselves the only person using the women’s restroom, one advantage in light of well-documented workplace challenges associated with minority status. Men face similar challenges when they work in Human Resources, Marketing, or Communications, where more women are employed. Despite potential isolation of experiencing gender minority status, […]

Men Negotiate More Assertively with Women Managers

Men volunteers negotiated more assertively with women in supervisory roles in laboratory tasks, compared with strategies they used with male supervisors, reported Bocconi University’s Ekaterina Netchaeva, Maryam Kouchaki of Northwestern University, and Washington State University’s Leah D. Sheppard. This cross-gender negotiation trend was reduced when woman in supervisory roles demonstrated directness and proactivity (“administrative agency”) […]