It’s bad enough that women get paid, on average, 20 percent less than men for doing the same job. Adding additional insult and insecurity, is a new study which claims that women who are perceived to be “nice” or “mild-mannered” make less money than their more assertive female colleagues.
Conducted by Prof. Sharon Toker of the Tel Aviv University Coller School of Management, the study interestingly notes that “the same goes for dominant men versus their more conciliatory male counterparts — but even dominant women earn far less than all of their male colleagues, dominant or otherwise.”
No country for nice women
The study was conducted among 375 men and women at a multinational electronics company, randomly selected from various departments. The objective criteria used by the researchers included analysis of tenure, education, and performance data relative to income and promotion statistics. They also polled the subjects to determine how the ‘individual perceived the fit between their education, experience, and performance on the one hand, and their income and rank on the other.’
