Why women don't ask

In a fascinating book published four years ago, Women Don't Ask, Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever found that whether they want higher salaries or more help at home, women often found it hard to ask. But why don't they ask? Harvard's Hannah Riley Bowles and Carnegie Mellon's Linda Babcock and Lei Lai have examined this question in a series of experiments. Their paper, Social Incentives for Gender Differences in the Propensity to Initiate Negotiations: Sometimes It Does Hurt to Ask (PDF), finds that women may face social, such as being perceived as 'demanding', or may be penalised for initiating negotiations:

Four experiments show that gender differences in the propensity to initiate negotiations may be explained by differential treatment of men and women when they attempt to negotiate. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants evaluated written accounts of candidates who did or did not initiate negotiations for higher compensation. Evaluators penalized female candidates more than male candidates for initiating negotiations.

In Experiment 3, participants evaluated videotapes of candidates who accepted compensation offers or initiated negotiations. Male evaluators penalized female candidates more than male candidates for initiating negotiations; female evaluators penalized all candidates for initiating negotiations.

Perceptions of niceness and demandingness explained resistance to female negotiators. In Experiment 4, participants adopted the candidate’s perspective and assessed whether to initiate negotiations in same scenario used in Experiment 3. With male evaluators, women were less inclined than men to negotiate, and nervousness explained this effect. There was no gender difference when evaluator was female.

As the authors conclude, "this research suggests that gender differences in the initiation of negotiations cannot be resolved simply by encouraging women to speak up more." Moreover, research which focuses primarily on the economic outcomes of negotiation may overlook the fact that sometimes "the social costs of engaging in certain negotiating behaviors may not outweigh the economic benefits."

It's certainly food for thought - but with one very important caveat. Like most other experimental studies, the authors have based their conclusions on an unrepresentative sample - college students.

The participants were 119 North American university students (66 men, 53 women) recruited from various points on a university campus (e.g., flyers, dining halls) to participate in a Hiring Decision Study.

I very much doubt that the behaviour and attitudes of a bunch of students whose median age was 20 would accurately replicate those of experienced supervisors or HR managers facing a recruitment, promotion or renumeration decision. I wish social scientists would make greater efforts to find test subjects who are representative of the hypothesis they are testing, rather than go for the lazy (and cheap) approach of walking down the corridor and offering $5 to whoever they can get.

Comments

[Marcin Tustin]

This may be a good proxy for those who do not have much education, or who do not have jobs and lifestyles that involve negotiation and managing relationsips. So, once again we see the poor getting it in the neck.

[Lafayette]

NE: I wish social scientists would make greater efforts to find test subjects who are representative of the hypothesis they are testing

I suggest that the findings (of college students) are interesting. That is they are necessary but insufficient.

I would further suggest that the “control group” be polled once again at five year intervals until the age of 40/45. This would give a progression of data over a sufficiently long period to see if opinions were age dependent.

I suspect (intuitively) that women learn to assert themselves more forcefully with age/experience. And, now that I think of it ... men too.

It would also be interesting to see if self-assertion is level-of-education dependent.

[Vishaan]

Fully agreed. College students? What a poor sample. In fact I believe there are 2 other factors that are not included, although I have only read the post and not the paper. Negotiation strategy is paramount. One cannot expect something to be given by just asking. Furthermore, if the initiator makes an artless demand, all the more likely they will be taken advantage of, as they've made their naivete quite plain. Second, and please forgive me, but how influential is physical appearance. I believe very.

[Lafayette]

brk: "One cannot expect something to be given by just asking."

Said like a male.

Females are brought up to do exactly that, wait for life to be handed to them by a male.

The question is societal. Look at Hofstede’s work on cultural diversity and particularly the component of “Masculinity”. Compare your country’s results, in that component, with that of others, and you just might have a small idea of the cultural constraint that females are up against.

[vishaan]

I apologize for not being clearer. My comments were independant of the study's results. Although the study does reveal disturbing trends between men and women (this cannot be confined to job interviews), it could be more representative of the hypothesis. Progression data is very useful but this is hardly sufficient. Industry specific data would also reveal deeper trends not found in a general study. For example, medicine may be fairer to women than, say, law.

[Lafayette]

vs: Industry specific data would also reveal deeper trends not found in a general study. For example, medicine may be fairer to women than, say, law.

I doubt you could get a representative sample, from each country, of women by each industry.

They are waiting, perhaps, to be asked to be employed ... ?

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