Equality Takes Work

Back in December, journalists were surprised when President Obama called exclusively on female reporters during a press conference. The president is not the only one explicitly focusing on getting women to have more of a say. Google’s technical employees recently found this message in their inbox: “I wanted to update everyone on our efforts to encourage women to self-nominate for promotion… We know that small biases—about ourselves and others—add up over time and overcoming them takes a conscious effort.” What is this about? Can women not speak up for themselves?

The answer is complicated. Much research suggests that women who “lean in” too much are that when a group of professional men and women was asked to evaluate the competence of male and female chief executives, they appraised “speaking up” differently depending on the gender of the speaker. Male executives were rewarded with higher ratings for speaking up while their female counterparts were punished for such assertiveness and received lower competence ratings than their quieter peers. Women do not prefer saying less: They anticipate the treatment they will receive when they say more.