A new study published in American Political Science Review has found that women are less likely to speak it when it comes to collaborative group settings. Their observations showed that "the time that women spoke was significantly less than their proportional representation—amounting to less than 75 percent of the time that men spoke."
According to the study's authors, women contributed to the conversation much more when it was framed as consensus-building rather than a majority-rules vote. And when women's voices were included, the group's conclusions were profoundly different. More via Eurekalert:
"In school boards, governing boards of organizations and firms, and legislative committees, women are often a minority of members and the group uses majority rule to make its decisions," Mendelberg said. "These settings will produce a dramatic inequality in women's floor time and in many other ways. Women are less likely to be viewed and to view themselves as influential in the group and to feel that their 'voice is heard.'"
For their experiments, Karpowitz and Mendelberg recruited people to be part of a group and discuss the best way to distribute money they earned together from a hypothetical task.
...Notably, the groups arrived at different decisions depending on women's participation – swinging the group's stance on the level of generosity given to the lowest member of the group.
"When women participated more, they brought unique and helpful perspectives to the issue under discussion," Karpowitz said. "We're not just losing the voice of someone who would say the same things as everybody else in the conversation."
Most would see this as yet another example of the old double standard:
men speak up to be heard they are confident and assertive; when women do
it they come across as shrill and bitchy. And the main reason why this old cliche holds true is that most women tend to default to self-deprecation instead of assertiveness. So instead of blaming on the guys, more women need to stop allowing themselves to be talked over and dominated in group settingsFor their experiments, Karpowitz and Mendelberg recruited people to be part of a group and discuss the best way to distribute money they earned together from a hypothetical task.
...Notably, the groups arrived at different decisions depending on women's participation – swinging the group's stance on the level of generosity given to the lowest member of the group.
"When women participated more, they brought unique and helpful perspectives to the issue under discussion," Karpowitz said. "We're not just losing the voice of someone who would say the same things as everybody else in the conversation."
