What Women Want: Maybe It's Mommy Track More Than Partner Track
And it's okay if that's the case. (Heresy to say that, I know.)
Feminists and economists and all other sorts of ists seem driven to turn that into a work-world "gender-discrimination" tragedy.
But, generally speaking, looking at the intensity of female aspirations versus male ones, it turns out there are some predictable outcomes -- right in line with evolved sex differences. More on that below.
But first, researchers Ghazala Azmat and Rosa Ferrer put out a paper, "Gender Gaps in Performance: Evidence from Young Lawyers":
This paper documents the gender gap in performance among high-skilled professionals in the United States. On the basis of widely used performance measures in law firms, we find that male lawyers bill 10 percent more hours and bring in more than twice as much new client revenue as female lawyers. The differential impact across genders in the presence of young children and differences in aspirations to become a law firm partner account for a large share of the difference in performance. We show that accounting for performance has important consequences for gender gaps in lawyers' earnings and subsequent promotion.
I work like an insane person -- or what other people would find to be an insane person. I told Gregg to take the avocados he left me so they won't spoil because I just don't have the energy to cut up food.
I'm not suddenly an invalid, unable to use a paring knife. I'm working on a big healthcare expose (and having to learn an entirely new area of science from scratch), and going word by word over my book proofs to make any final tiny changes -- in addition to the science reading and writing I do for my column. Basically, every second of my time that I can spend on work, I do.
It's been like that for about three years, while I've been working on the book. But my work means the world to me, and but for Gregg, I'd probably eat frozen hot dogs for every meal.
I have just a few female friends like this -- researchers and writer friends. But more than for men, I think many women long for "normal" lives -- including having a family -- far more than they care about ascending the ladder at work. This doesn't mean they don't want careers and aren't ambitious; I just thing women, in general, tend to be less ambitious, by far, than men, and this study's results seem to be a reflection of that.
This makes evolutionary sense, because men evolved to be attractive to women through gaining high status and showing that they could bring in resources. Staying late at the office is the "proximate" goal -- but the "ultimate" one is the better choice of partner the guy gets from doing that.
A little more from the paper, via @SteveStuWill (Steve Stewart-Williams), from whose tweetstream I spotted this:
Gender gaps in law career success better explained by aspirations and children than by direct discrimination https://t.co/6AYlUWzaCV pic.twitter.com/ggBdj0GIXP
— SteveStewartWilliams (@SteveStuWill) September 2, 2017
Here's an unpaywalled copy of the paper.
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/economic-man.asp
This being one of the basic concepts underpinning a significant portion of macroeconomic theory is part of the problem with economists. It is also why "The market can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent." Which is often attributed to Keynes.
Ben at September 3, 2017 9:34 AM
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