Gender Differences in The Workplace

Dennis Martino and Monika Bissell1

Are Men and Women Different?

On many levels the answer is clearly yes.

Are Men and Women Different?

Starting in the 1960’s and moving through the 1980’s much research was conducted, primarily to prove that despite physical differences such as upper body strength, men and women are exactly alike.

Are Men and Women Different?

Clearly the point of such research was to help women overcome the societal barriers to employment in what were considered non-traditional jobs.

Are Men and Women Different?

In more recent years hundreds of scientific studies have been conducted in:

Anthropology Biochemistry Brain structure Human Development Organizational Behavior Sociology Sociolinguistics

How does this play out?

Anthropology - Studies across the world demonstrate that women pick up on non-verbal clues, can read body language and facial expressions better than men. Some people think this may account for “women’s intuition”

How does this play out?

Biochemistry – Some scientists have found that the “corpus callosum” fibers, connecting the left and right halves of the brain are more developed in women than in men. Some people think this may account for “women’s intuition”.

More Bio-Chemistry

As the brain develops we are “wired” differently.

How our brain processes information and where it does so is different.

How does this play out?

Psychology / Human Development – Infant girls can watch a human face twice as long as newborn boys.This leads some scientists to believe that the female orientation toward others appears to be hard-wired from birth. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin found that women notice and recollect 70% more detail in their environment than men.

How does this play out?

Psychology - Men seem to have a psychological need to feel needed. Women on the other hand seem to have a psychological need to feel loved and cherished.

How does this play out?

Sociology – Countless studies and our own experience has shown that throughout most of our lifetimes, girls and boys have been treated differently. The expectations have been different and role expectations have too. Very few of us can escape the struggle to overcome the stereotypes laid upon us by society.

How does the Bio-Chemistry of the brain demonstrate

differences. Women have an

advantage in perception through all senses and detailed tactical thinking. Heightened perception through the senses is believed to be the basis for to concept of “women’s intuition”.

Men have an advantage in abstract thinking and strategic thinking. This may account for some general superiority with games such as chess.

More Examples

Women react to pain more quickly and seem to be more sensitive to it. However their overall ability to deal with long-term pain is much greater than men. In some tests of sensitivity to pressure men have no overlapping scores with women.

Men deal with short term pain with seemingly higher tolerance but are much more sensitive to longer term pain.

M. A. Ruda on gender and pain: “It makes no sense to assume

that male and female processing of pain are the same.” 15

                            

    

Ruda’s Findings

Working with colleagues, including Ke Ren, Marino DeLeon, and Richard Nahin, in recent work, Ruda has concentrated on problems of gender differences in pain, and the effects of pain on neonatal development. She has examined the responses of newborn rats to painful stimuli and later retested the same rats as adults. Her observations suggest that the experience of pain during neonatal development has longterm sensory and behavioral consequences. She has also demonstrated crucial differences in pain responses between male and female animals and in different phases of the females' reproductive

cycles.

More Examples

Higher verbal ability - Women’s language skills develop faster - Women have an advantage in learning new languages – Women have extremely low incidences of stuttering and other speech impediments. To some extent this is a left-brain right brain development issue.

Men’s right brain development generally provides higher spatial ability - Accounting for some higher ability with Math, Design engineering etc. To some extent this is a left-brain right brain development issue.

More Examples

Women see better than men in the dark – Have a perception of more shades of certain colors, red is one example – Generally have a better visual memory. Women take in a bigger picture because they generally have wider peripheral vision.

Men see better than women in brighter light – a better sense of depth (might be due to some mild tunnel vision) and a better sense of perspective than women.

Communication Style Differences

What are some of the obvious and not so obvious communication style differences which are produced by sociological, biological, psychological , and anthropological factors?

Women Men

Tend to sit close together in groups.

 

 

 

Tend to take up more physical space.

 

 

 

Women Men

Tend to lean forward into conversations.

Tend to lean backward when listening.

Women Men

Tend to be more capable of sitting still.

Tend to fidget and shift.

Women Men

Make direct eye contact more frequently.

Look at companions sideways or often from an angle.

Women Men

Make more gentle

gestures.

Gesture forcefully.

Women Men

Have a wider range of vocal intonations.

Speak more monotonously, frequently mumbling.

Women Men

Use qualifiers and make requests.

 

 

 

 

Make declarative statements and commands.

 

 

 

Women Men

Smile more often. Clench their jaws.

Women Men

Use endearments to show affection.

Tease and joke to show affection.

Women Men

Empathize first, then seek solutions.

 

Leap to solve problems.

 

Women Men

Apologize when a situation seems bad. It’s not about guilt.

 Apologize only when they believe they have done something wrong.

Women Men

Talk about relationships to maintain and strengthen them. It provides comfort and reassurance.

Tend to talk about relationships only when they think things are going badly.

What’s it all mean?

As the joke goes…. A man gets anxious when a woman says, “Can we talk?”

The Question should not be,”Can we talk”, to each other, but rather can we understand?

Is there a solution to the problem? To understand what people mean, you need

to understand their background culture and biology.

Is there a solution to the problem? We can’t really put ourselves in their place

but we can comprehend it.

Is there a solution to the problem? Learning about our differences and different

styles of communicating can help.

Of course understanding the problems with communication does not make them go away. Most of the time we will

misunderstand. Virtually all the time we will be quite

different. BUT………………..

Vive La Difference!