Fowle 1 Caroline Fowle Malcolm Campbell English 1103 November 5, 2013 Chutes and Ladders: Why Women are

Falling Down on Their Way Up My college English teacher began each class with a bit of free writing: a prompt was projected and we responded with our first thoughts. No stakes, no pressure. One day the prompt was I am good at or I am knowledgeable about and I suddenly had no thoughts. Following those ellipses seemed impossible. I wouldnt allow myself to admit, even to myself, that I was good at something. I was so ruffled by my response that I began doing a little exploring on the role of confidence in success (success, for this purpose, as defined through very material gains in educational and professional endeavors) and the broader involvement of confidence as a way to explain the gender gap in the professional world. My investigation began with some casual hyper-awareness of females in classroom settings. In my visual arts class, for example, I noticed one young woman in particular who prefaced each comment or question with some kind of disclaimer or apology. This might be stupid but or Im sorry but. She was so unsure and unconfident that I began getting annoyed with her. Why couldnt she just share her ideas? Everything she said contributed to the discussion. It was a liberal studies class with under twenty studentsarguably, the most comfortable layout for participation. She didnt hesitate from participating; her hand went up more often than anyone else, but a disclaimer preceded each comment or question, no matter how insightful or important her main idea was. Why does this behavior persist? Theres a lot of support that should make young women more confident, cocky even. In 2012, according to Forbes, 70% of valedictorians were female (Drexler). And according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, even though women make up just

Fowle 2 under half of the workforce (47%), women were the majority of those in professional and technical occupations (57%). More women are graduating from high school and college than ever before. So is the female in my art class demonstrating a lag time before these results make her a little more confident? Actually a lot of research suggests otherwise. Confidence begets success and the inverse isnt necessarily true. Even though women are entering the work force in greater numbers, fewer women are making it up the ladder. Women, according to Forbes, make up 37% of mid-managers, 26% of vice presidents, and head only 4% of Fortune 500 companies (Drexler). What can explain this drop off? A social psychologist at Harvard Business School, Amy Cuddy, has paved the way in research to examine how people perceive power in a certain situation. She conducted a famous experiment that demonstrated that certain poses can make you feel and appear more powerful: two minutes in a power pose could create a 20% increase in testosterone levels and a 25% decrease in cortisol (a stress hormone). These qualities are favorable in situations involving judgment and decision-making (typical in business). Power poses include stretching your arms out or putting your legs up on the desk and leaning back. People who spent a few minutes in these poses were more likely to be hired in their experiment and also were more likely to take (potentially profitable) risks (modeled in a gambling scenario). On the other hand, subjects who spent time in low-power poses (making themselves smallerpulling in arms or touching neck) had the opposite reaction i.e. increased levels in cortisol, decreased levels of testosterone, and were less likely to take a risk. Although research also shows that women typically assume power poses less often than men, anyone can "fake it" (spend a few moments in a power pose) and feel like she belongs as a high hierarchical rank in an organization (Cuddy et al. 3-5).

Fowle 3 Cuddys research supports the idea that there are certain behaviors that make people feel more powerful, thus more confident. So young females who are fitting into their environment and mirroring other women in their lives are bearing the physiological and psychological consequences of these learned habits in the same way that young males do. However, the outcomes of these habitual behaviors are notably different depending on the gender. The ideas presented in Cuddys findings led to questioning of other seemingly benign aspects of our society that could explain the gender gap. Id heard claims that language is maledominated, but was never convinced and didnt want too stumble into a feminist tunnel vision in my exploration of confidence and the gender gap. But I recently read an interesting study conducted by Lera Boroditsky, an assistant psychology professor at Stanford University. She conducted an experiment that asked two groups of people to describe "bridge." The first group of people responded with "beautiful" "elegant" and "slender" as the most common adjectives and the second responded with "strong" "sturdy" and "towering" most frequently. How could two groups of people respond with such varying results? The first batch of people was German and the second was Spanish (or native Spanish speakers). The German word for bridge is feminine (die brucke) while the Spanish is masculine (el puente) (Boroditsky, Schmidt, and Phillips 69). It turns out gender roles may be this subliminal and integrated into our thoughts as we consider our role in the world. In addition, words of professional or analytical nature are typically masculine and the more abstract conceptual words are feminine. Boroditsky also found that 85% of personifications, whether a male or a female is chosen can be predicted by the grammatical gender of the subject in the artists native language. For example, German artists were more likely to paint death as a man, whereas Russian artists more frequently depicted death as a woman (Boroditsky and Segel 1).

Fowle 4 Clearly, this study does not entirely account why women are falling behind on their way up the ladder or why women have confidence issues. Confidence, itself, is a feminine noun in most cases. And although English does not use gendered articles and many languages have neutral articles, there are broader implications for these findings. But it provides evidence that how we think (what language we use) is integrated in how we perceive our surroundings and thus place ourselves into our environment. With all of these factors to explain the gender gap, the next question that people have been asking for generations is, of course, what do we do about it? Is it more beneficial for women to increase their representation in the current system or for women to remain underrepresented in the short-term and try to change the status quo from the outside? Im not sure exactly how this would be done, but it would have to involve both men and women and young professionals who have the option to join the corporate game and choosing to opt out and creating ethical and fair work environments on their own. Last year, Harvard tried to change the way the system works by restructuring their curriculum. Harvards Business School Class of 2013 was the first class to go through a new program aimed at improving the environment for female students and maintaining female professors. From 2006 to 2007, a third of the female junior faculty left and each year female students enter the business school with equal scores as men but fall behind during the program. Harvards MBA program is participation-heavy (about 50% of your grade in most classes is determined by it). So, in the Class of 2013 experiment, they had a curriculum that prepared people to participate in the classroom. At Harvard, students were taught how to raise their hand. This curriculum change demonstrates that even the deans at one of the worlds best business

Fowle 5 schools consider seemingly small social behaviors (evidence of confidence?) to be determinants of women reaching the top. In response to the program changes, a female professor at Harvard asked Are we trying to change the world 900 students at a time, or are we preparing students for the world in which they are about to go? (Kantor). Thats a sentiment that needs to be dealt with whenever change is called for. Certain people will always be benefiting from the status quo and it seems to be easier to adapt to it, rather than change it. Ive only found one study that suggests that there is not a difference in confidence between the genders. A University of Basel study in 2011 found that young women had as much self-esteem as young men based on 7,100 14-30 year olds. This statistic I think is a little misleading as age dramatically affects self-esteem in adolescence. Part of the issue with assessing confidence is that, as David Brooks of the New York Times suggests, male selfconfidence tends to be based on efficacy, how they perform tasks, while female self-confidence tends to be based on self-worth, on more general traits like integrity and compassion. Theres also the whole additional aspect to self-worth which involves appearances. The Dove Company launched a campaign after their findings in "The Real Truth About Beauty: A Global Report." The study found that "only 2% of women around the world would describe themselves as beautiful." It is believed, at least by Dove and other large companies that are making promoting self-confidence their goal through their marketing campaigns, that lack of self-confidence (even on a superficial level) affects your performance in all other walks of life. I was thinking about how lack of self-confidence in yourself physically comes into play in a professional setting, and the most obvious example I can think of is in negotiating. The idea that women earn less than men, in most cases (in America), stems from differences in

Fowle 6 negotiating salary from the beginning. And self-confidence is completely linked with negotiation. You have to look at your possible future employer and say I am worth this much. And if women feel like they are worth less because of their appearances, women lose. According to a survey by LinkedIn reported by Forbes, 26% of American women feel comfortable negotiating while almost 40% of men do (Casserly). It should also be noted that Americans, were the most likely to feel anxious about negotiating (39%), according to that same survey that asked 2,500 professionals across eight countries. Indian employees felt the most confident and Germans had the most positive outlook on the process. Therefore should be noted that whatever is causing such blows to the American peoples confidence affects both genders. As Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, writes in her book, We hold ourselves back in ways both big and small, by lacking self-confidence, by not raising our hands, and by pulling back when we should be leaning in (20). A lot of women have criticized her book as being elitist and for not addressing the issues that the majority of workingwomen face. But I think thats a strange double standard for a lot of people, especially women, to make. I dont think anyone was upset when J.P. Morgan gave advice to other businessmen or demanded that he address all of mens problems. Why cant a successful woman write about her experiences? She also prefaces the book by stating that her intention is to offer advice that would have been useful long before I had heard of Google or Facebook and that will resonate with women in a broad range of circumstances and recognizes that shes incredibly privileged and most people dont have the resources she has. Despite its critics, the book has been well received by others. The book doesnt just speak to women. Its message is directed to men too. Many men have formed or joined Lean In Circles (groups of people who have read Lean In, discuss the issues present, and work towards effecting

Fowle 7 change). A member of a Lean In Circle, James Dominick, who has a high-ranking job at a South Korean bank in New York, understood the importance of her message: After reading the book, I now understand that women are promoted on achievements and men are promoted on promise, which is something from a behavioral bias standpoint just worth knowing (Seligson). Im not in a position to agree or disagree with Dominick. I am eighteen and all of the opportunities (e.g. scholarships) Ive been given have been based on my potential. Also all of my work in high school was casual and part-time. I believe that part-time work is more structured and formulaic with their pay raises and benefits etc., but any promotion I got at work was based on marked achievements. An area for women to lean into is in the tasks and projects they sign up for; in a professional setting, women and men gravitate towards different tasks. A study by the Center for the Advancement of Engineering Education found that, when working in groups, highly accomplished male students gravitated toward the technical tasks, while highly accomplished female students gravitated toward the administrative tasks. But I wonder if its a matter of preference; whats to say that technical work is better than administrative work? Couldnt technical works higher value just be a result of the previously established outlook in a male dominated business world? But its dangerous to publicly call it a matter of preference or natural ability or inclination; Lawrence Summerss infamous suggestion that women are less involved in science and engineering because of a different availability of aptitude at the high end contributed to his resignation. By the way, a recent study reports girls are in the lead in a science exam in most developed countriesor the gap is insignificant except in the United States (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development). The

Fowle 8 exam was taken in 2009 by 470,000 fifteen year old students. That points a finger to some kind of unknown American-specific cultural factor. With all of this in mind, Im not sure what the solution could be. I dont think bolstering the confidence of half the worlds population is necessarily a good thingat least in parts of the world where men and women are on equal footing. Over-confidence is a dangerous path. We shouldnt have to choose over-confidence or under-confidence. We need to aim for selfassurance and fix any factors that might reduce a womans confidence to commit in a professional setting, i.e. fears of not having support if she decides to start a family.

Fowle 9 Works Cited Bertrand, Marianne, Claudia Goldin, and Lawrence F. Katz. 2010. "Dynamics of the Gender Gap for Young Professionals in the Financial and Corporate Sectors." American Economic Journal: Applied Economics. Boroditsky, Lera., Schmidt, L., & Phillips, W. 2003. Sex, Syntax, and Semantics. 8 Jul. 2001. Web. 1 Oct. 2013. Eds. Gentner & Goldin-Meadow. Language in Mind: Advances in the study of Language and Cognition. Brooks, David. The Confidence Questions. New York Times. 22 Apr. 2013. Web. 1 Oct. 2013 Casserly, Meghan. Why American Women Lose At Negotiation -- And What We Can Do About It. Forbes. Forbes Magazine. 3 Apr. 2012. Web. 20 Nov. 2013. "The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty." The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty. Dove, n.d. Web. 3 Oct. 2013. Drexler, Peggy. "Women Need More Than Confidence To Succeed, They Need Ambition." Forbes. Forbes Magazine. Web. 15 July 2013. Web. 3 Oct. 2013. Fausey, Caitlin, Long, Bria, Inamori, Aya, and Boroditsky. Lera. Constructing agency: the role of language Frontiers in Psychology. 15 Oct. 2010. Web. 1 Nov. 2013. Kantor, Jodi. Harvard Business School Case Study: Gender Equity. New York Times. 7 Sep. 2013. Web. 1 Nov. 2013. Sandberg, Sheryl. Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead. New York: Random House, 2013. Print. Segel, Edward and Boroditsky, Lera. Grammar in Art. Frontiers in Psychology. 13 Nov. 2011. Web. 1 Oct. 2013.

Fowle 10 Seligson, Hannah. "Page by Page, Men Are Stepping Into the 'Lean In' Circle." New York Times. 1 Nov. 2013. Web. 1 Nov. 2013. United States. Department of Labor. Bureau of Labor Statistics. "Employed persons by detailed occupation, sex, race, and Hispanic or Latino ethnicity" Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2012. Web. 2 October 2013.