Why Women's Work Get Less Noticed - Building Gender Balanced Business

It is axiomatic that women are generally hesitant to boast about their efforts and are less likely than men to push for raises and promotions. In a workplace that rewards aggressiveness and self-promotion, women often go unrecognized for their contributions. Tana Ganeva of AlterNet has neatly summed up leading research on how women tend to focus on being nice, while men consider advancement foremost — and the resulting impact in promotions:

• A 2004 International Survey Research survey found that female executives focus mainly on the company’s well-being and smooth employee relations. Men’s top priority: their own career development.

• The psychologist Shannon L. Goodson, in a 2008 study, quantified how women draw far less attention than men to their accomplishments and abilities. Men were more likely to inflate their contributions.

• An experiment by the Harvard psychologist Hannah Bowles proved how not only do people prefer to hire aggressive men over aggressive women, but that women are less likely to negotiate aggressively over salary after witnessing another women push aggressively for advancement.

The AlterNet article