Here's an interesting answer to the gender wage gap (the one that states women make about 80 cents for every dollar a man does).
This one doesn't concern who works the most hours or years and who takes time off to raise the kids. This one isn't about educational differences or work experience.
Apparently, it's because women don't ask for raises as much as men do.
Via Stubborn Facts, who reference this Mary Katherine Ham column.
In one early study, Babcock brought 74 volunteers into a laboratory to play a word game called Boggle. The volunteers were told they would be paid anywhere from $3 to $10 for their time. After playing the game, each student was given $3 and asked if the sum was okay. Eight times more men than women asked for more money.
Babcock then ran the experiment a different way. She told a new set of 153 volunteers that they would be paid $3 to $10 but explicitly added that the sum was negotiable. Many more now asked for more money, but the gender gap remained substantial: 58 percent of the women, but 83 percent of the men, asked for more.
Interesting, no? I'm sure Echidne would complain that there was some sampling flaw, or that the study wasn't sufficiently scientific, but it makes sense to me. I hate to negotiate for stuff, and I'm no shrinking violet.
According to Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever, authors of Women Don't Ask: Negotiation and the Gender Divide,
--In surveys, 2.5 times more women than men said they feel "a great deal of apprehension" about negotiating.
--Men initiate negotiations about four times as often as women.
--When asked to pick metaphors for the process of negotiating, men picked "winning a ballgame" and a "wrestling match," while women picked "going to the dentist."
--Women will pay as much as $1,353 to avoid negotiating the price of a car, which may help explain why 63 percent of Saturn car buyers are women.
--Women are more pessimistic about the how much is available when they do negotiate and so they typically ask for and get less when they do negotiate—on average, 30 percent less than men.
--20 percent of adult women (22 million people) say they never negotiate at all, even though they often recognize negotiation as appropriate and even necessary.
I don't tend to use the crutch of Teh Patriarchy to explain a lot of differences, but I will say this here: most women have very unpleasant negotiating experiences early in their lives. They wind up feeling uncomfortable and disadvantaged during the process, and this makes women want to avoid negotiations as much as possible.
My evidence is anecdotal: the smirk I've gotten when trying to negotiate a traffic ticket. Getting ignored at the dealership when I wasn't with a male companion. The scowl I received when I point out that someone was given a better deal than I was offered for something. The frown from a boss when I turned down a 25-cent-an hour raise to take on a huge new project (I'm not making that up).
I'm not alone in these feelings. I would say most women have had similar experiences, at least at some point. Maybe it has to do with the way we are raised to "just get along." Or maybe it has to do with bad experiences. Maybe it plays to a more aggressive side of men and boys, or maybe boys are taught about negotiation from an earlier age.
But one thing it does do is result in lower wages and expectations for women, even well-educated ones. I look forward to reading this study.
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