In Brief
The Belief
There’s a popular notion that men and women are fundamentally different in important (nonbiological) ways—and those differences are cited to explain women’s lagged achievement.
The Truth
According to numerous meta-analyses of published research, men and women are actually very similar with respect to key attributes such as confidence, appetite for risk, and negotiating skill.
Why It Matters
Too many managers try to “fix” women or accommodate their supposed differences—and that doesn’t work. Companies must instead address the organizational conditions that lead to lower rates of retention and promotion for women.
The conversation about the treatment of women in the workplace has reached a crescendo of late, and senior leaders—men as well as women—are increasingly vocal about a commitment to gender parity. That’s all well and good, but there’s an important catch. The discussions, and many of the initiatives companies have undertaken, too often reflect a faulty belief: that men and women are fundamentally different, by virtue of their genes or their upbringing or both. Of course, there are biological differences. But those are not the differences people are usually talking about. Instead, the rhetoric focuses on the idea that women are inherently unlike men in terms of disposition, attitudes, and behaviors. (Think headlines that tout “Why women do X at the office” or “Working women don’t Y.”)
