WOMEN SPECIAL...Women Adapt Better

Women Adapt Better

Hanna Rosin, author of The End of Men (and the Rise of Women), talks about how women still dominate 12 of the top 15 jobs projected to grow in the coming years. Excerpts from an interview:

    For women to be ‘successful’ in our society, one of the most difficult things they have to do is resist the influences and pressures of the social norm (such as the pressure to care more about domestic things). This requires tremendous effort. I’ve always believed that women sacrifice more than men do. Women are often stereotyped as being sensible, but that isn’t necessarily the best attribute to have in a game where the rules are defined mostly by men. Could you share your ideas on how women are affected by biased social settings and stereotypes? What are your suggestions for casting off all of these seemingly natural constrains? Research backs up what you say. In many lab studies, women are penalised for being too aggressive and straightforward, or even for not being helpful. Researchers at New York University handed out two evaluations describing two different candidates as ‘stellar’ performers in an aeronautics company. The evaluations were identical except one candidate was named ‘Andrea’ and the other ‘James’. Research subjects judged Andrea as less appealing and less deserving of a promotion. They assumed that because she was a woman, she must have done some pretty unpleasant things to get to such a position in a male-dominated field.

    This is all pretty depressing. But there is some good news. Some researchers at Harvard Kennedy School went back to the question last year and tried to figure out how women could get around this problem. The thinking is: We are now in a transitional moment where so many more women are qualified and poised to move into upper management, but there remains a cultural suspicion of overly dominant women. So how can we get around that? I write in my book about the Harvard researchers’ conclusions. In short, they came up with a few helpful formulas where women could advocate for themselves, but not trigger that backlash. It’s annoying, in its tightrope specificity. But it really does work. You’ll have to read the book for more specifics!

Have some of your positions on gender dynamics changed after looking at the fallout from the financial crisis where the second wave of job losses appear to be mostly female public sector workers? I know several female teachers who have either been laid off or are unhireable due to structural unemployment.

Women were more heavily impacted by the recent public sector cuts because more of them work in the public sector, especially as teachers. But that doesn’t change the long-term trend. Despite the Republican rhetoric, the US government has experienced steady growth over the last few decades while manufacturing has experienced steady shrinkage. Women still dominate 12 of the top 15 jobs projected to grow in the coming years.

To what extent has the increasing number of women in the workforce contributed to the downward pressure on wages? It is now much more difficult for a family to be supported by one wage earner — either male or female — than it was for previous generations. Should anything be done to change this? If so, what?

Women do tend to get paid less than men. And a lot of the female-dominated industries at the bottom of the economy don’t offer well-paid jobs. But I’m not sure if that has ended up depressing wages overall for men and women. If anyone out there knows any good studies on this, please send them along.

I haven’t read your book. But I have read excerpts that were recently published in The New York Times Magazine, in which you argue that women have adapted better to the realities of our global economy because in many cases they started their careers without big expectations and were more willing to adapt when necessary. In some ways, particularly for those lower on the economic ladder, the situation has now reversed, so what do you see happening over the next generation? Will young men today be as adaptable as young women were two or three decades ago? Will today’s young women allow their careers and ambitions to define them, leaving them unwilling to adapt if forced to down the road?

I am generally a believer that a lot of these changes have to do with historical circumstances and not, say, innate qualities. Part of the reason women are adapting is because they’ve been marginalised, and the marginalised tend to be more flexible and adaptable. I often think about men after World War II, when they came back desperate to re-establish themselves, took advantage of the GI Bill and raced back into the economy. The mean way to put it is: Patriarchal privilege makes you lazy. But men have hustled before and they surely will again. At least I hope so.

  :: Stephen J Dubner & Steven Levitt  © The New York Times