Why do women consistently make less salary than men, even when doing the exact same work? Previous research has shown that it may be partially due to the fact that men tend to be more aggressive and competitive than women when it comes to their salary and position within a company. So you’d think, well, if we just help women be more assertive and ask for more, they’ll get it.

Not so, new research suggests:

[The latest study] found that men and women get very different responses when they initiate negotiations. Although it may well be true that women often hurt themselves by not trying to negotiate, this study found that women’s reluctance was based on an entirely reasonable and accurate view of how they were likely to be treated if they did. Both men and women were more likely to subtly penalize women who asked for more — the perception was that women who asked for more were “less nice”.

So while women should certainly learn to be assertive, they need to utilize those assertiveness skills with far more sensitivity to the situational factor. Not all situations are equally responsive to such assertiveness, and in fact, it could backfire for women.

“This isn’t about fixing the women,” Bowles [the lead researcher] said. “It isn’t about telling women, ‘You need self-confidence or training.’ They are responding to incentives within the social environment.”

[...]

“The point of this paper is: Yes, there is an economic rationale to negotiate, but you have to weigh that against social risks of negotiating. What we show is those risks are higher for women than for men.”

The findings were published earlier this year in the journal Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.

The Washington Post has the full story, Salary, Gender and the Social Cost of Haggling.

Dr. John Grohol is the CEO and founder of Psych Central. He is an author, researcher and expert in mental health online, and has been writing about online behavior, mental health and psychology issues -- as well as the intersection of technology and human behavior -- since 1992. Dr. Grohol sits on the editorial board of the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking and is a founding board member and treasurer of the Society for Participatory Medicine.

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    Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 1 Aug 2007
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