In a new job, do men and women differ in whether they accept the first salary offered or attempt to negotiate better conditions? One reason women currently make on average only 77% of what men earn is that women are less likely to negotiate over their salaries and instead agree with the initial offer. A survey by McKinsey found that 52% of male MBA students had negotiated for a better offer, compared to only 17% of female MBA students. According to the mckinsey.com website, the experiment also showed that men find it much easier than women to ask for more money and thus are far more likely to do so.
Infidelity: Differences between men and women
Numerous studies have shown that men cheat on their partners more than women. There are several theories on why this is so; most are based on the idea that women are less likely to engage in infidelity since they must bear the consequences of accidental pregnancy. For the same reason they are also generally more selective in their choice of sexual partners.
Nevertheless, power can increase levels of infidelity for women too. Joris Lammers of the University of Cologne conducted a study asking more than 1,500 professionals to rank their position in the power hierarchy of their organisation on a scale ranging from 0 to 100. Respondents were then asked whether they had been unfaithful to their partners often or hardly at all. The conclusion was that those with more power claimed to be unfaithful more often. The effect was almost exactly the same for men and women. Thus the behaviour of both men and women is to a great extent influenced by how much power they have.
Society and prescriptive stereotypes
Changing how powerful we feel still only solves half the problem. Women as a group have less power than men; thus women face an additional barrier to using their power since they are expected to be caring and behave in a submissive way. The result of these two irreconcilable demands is that women are punished if they actually do have power and use it. This unfortunate and difficult situation is created by society's expectations. There are two types of stereotypes: one is descriptive – these are ideas about what people are likely to do; the other type is prescriptive - ideas about what people should do.
Amongst other things, it was discovered that when a male candidate gives an assertive response, he is seen as being confident and competent. But when a woman describes herself as assertive, the very same self-promotional statement makes her appear less likeable and not a good fit for the job.
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