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"You've lost the warrior instinct," explained my friend's boss as he fired her after years of 100-hour work weeks. Delivered to a female employee, the comment contained an undercurrent of sexism and, when combined with some of her on-the-job experiences, probably constituted what civil rights lawyers call an "actionable statement." My friend, however, chalked it up to the macho, hyper-competitive environment of her chosen profession: investment banking.
It's a classic stereotype, and not just on Wall Street: Men aggressively compete; women collaborate and nurture. It's also a view that's been well-studied in recent years by experimental economists, researchers who, rather than simply observing economic activity out in the world, put subjects in labs and ask them to play economic "games" in a controlled environment. These economists have found that American men don't disappoint, choosing to play more competitive games than female subjects (and sometimes performing better than women in competitive situations). Yet researchers have found that the stereotype isn't universal—in at least one society, women have stronger competitive drives than men. It appears that the warriors are made, not born.
(Read the rest of this article at Slate).
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Comments
remember when women weren't aggressive?
By: carrot | Sat, 11/28/2009 - 21:17
And then a whole slew of books and studies came out about "queen bees" and "relational aggression"? About how girls can be so cruel to each, they actually taunt each other to suicide? Of course women are aggressive, and of course they're competitive. Check your Facebook. Chances are, there's at least one "your kids are cute... not as cute as mine haha jk" comment per day. More, depending on who your friends are. Then there's the girl who brags about her engagement ring or her fancy wedding to anyone who'll listen, or the girl who has to be the hottest piece in the room, or the girl whose boyfriend is TOTALLY THE BEST, I mean, does your boyfriend do THIS for you?
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I don't see how these scientists didn't look at their results and conclude that their methodology is flawed, and it's not that women aren't competitive, it's just that they're not interested in whatever stupid game the researchers had them play. Maybe they should try to study competition in relationships and stereotypically-feminine, culturally-enforced female status symbols, rather than do yet another study on games or the stock market, before they declare that women (or just American women) aren't that competitive.