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Subscribe to RSSWomen are often told if they want power they have to speak up. So you’d think women leaders are chatting up a storm in boardrooms and in the halls of Congress.
Think again.
New research finds that even among women who hold powerful positions in government and business, they’re not making their voices heard as much as their powerful male counterparts, and for good reason.
“When women get power, talking a lot is seen negatively by other people,” said Victoria Brescoll, assistant professor of organizational behavior at the Yale School of Management. “They’re seen as domineering and controlling.”
Courtesy Yale University
Victoria Brescoll
Brescoll’s study of leaders and their vocalizing is titled “Who Takes the Floor and Why: Gender, Power, and Volubility in Organizations” and was published in the current issue of Administrative Science Quarterly.
In doing her research, Brescoll studied data from the U.S. Senate floor where the words spoken by all senators are recorded. She found that the most powerful male senators talked much more than powerful female senators.
In the study, she surmised that the difference could be a function of different genders having different ways of establishing rapport, “or because women are concerned about the potential backlash stemming from appearing to talk too much.”
The idea that women would be treated negatively if they did blab too much was supported by Brescoll’s additional research, where she had subjects rate hypothetical CEOs and politicians she created for research.
The women leaders who talked too much, according to the study, were rated as “significantly less competent and less suitable for leadership than a male CEO who was reported as speaking for the same amount.”
And both male and female participants in the study held this perception.
So should women leaders just shut up? No way, according to Brescoll.
“Women don’t do things because they anticipate a backlash, but that just reinforces stereotypes and becomes a collective action problem,” she stressed. If women don’t all join voices and start chattering away, she added, “then the stereotype will persist and we’ll continue to have this double standard at work.”
Time to start bending some ears, gals!
Leave a Comment:
Here's an idea...maybe the powerful women got "powerful" in the first place by not constantly blabbing???
We have two here at work that literally can't shut up for more than mere seconds without injecting themselves into a conversation. So it's no surprise that both men and women in our office can't stand them. And I dont believe this to be as black and white an issue, I'm sure one of the reasons people would rate someone that constantly talks inferior is because typically these types of people are insecure, and their thought processes jump from one subject to the next sporadically. Would you want a "leader" that did that?
And I would like to see that data qualifiers as to how they ranked "powerful" men and women senators together. I'm willing to bet a couple of the top men skewed the average since they would be simply required to talk more as house leaders, etc.
I don't want to get banned, so I will do what my Mother always told me.. (kidding)
Women that talk a lot I don't believe are actually seen as domineering and controlling. A lot of speech is also non verbal. Slouching, talking too loud, ranting on and on about the same thing, etc... Regardless if your points are valid, these things will make such points unheard. I would say, check how they speak with their gestures, hand movements, and such. That very well may be an issue.
The problem with today's society is everyone talks too much. Our social media culture gives every word a podium ... to our detriment. When one has something of insight or importance to express, then communicate. Otherwise, most of us are just not interested.
You talk about a couple chatty women in your office who probably aren't in a position of power and are just perhaps social as opposed to anti-social. Plus you criticize them for jumping from one subject to another and you are jumping a bit by comparing these two women to ones in power whcih the article refers to. I feel women need to speak up more. I read an article once about the "Yes dear" factor which leads men to believe their women agree with them more than they do. This is because women don't like confrontation and don't like to rock the boat (negative emotion). In the study women and men were asked to predict who their spouses voted for. Overwhelmingly women were correct but men were far less correct because when women got in the voting booth they voted their conscience instead of the husband's party line. Hence Democrats usually win the women's vote. I would like to see far more women and minorities in government and I believe we would have a kinder, gentler government less likely to rush to war and more concerned with the needs of the average person instead of the desires of the wealthy few and the greedy corporations.
just the fact that you used the words "blab" and "chattering" in the article to describe a woman talking is among the sexist reasons why the situation in the article happens. Do men "blab." ? do they "chatter"? both those terms demean what a woman is actually saying. Some studies show that men actually talk more than women, and I've observed it on occasion myself.
Women have ruined our children by not teaching and mothering! All they do is cause problems and drama bitching about equal rights! Women and sissy boys need to stay in the kitchen! Quit blabbing they`re pie holes! They might get more respect!
That should be 'their pie holes' not 'they're pie holes.'
Parenting takes a mom and a dad...sadly daddy usually is too busy.
I don't understand the point of this article.....who cares which gender talks more or not or how it gets perceived....the women you are talking about are already powerful leaders so obviously however they are doing things is working just fine for them. This man vs. woman crap is really starting to get so over blown, especially when we are comparing who talks more powerful men or powerful women...once again who cares....they're both powerful
I think this line is the place to start the conversation, "She found that the most powerful male senators talked much more than powerful female senators." and the following I think has a lot to do w/ it. "In the study, she surmised that the difference could be a function of different genders having different ways of establishing rapport." I think women are much more likely to do their work behind the scenes than needing to stand up and bluster and carry on in front of others(maybe not the best wording). If I personally had an issue at work I would be much more likely to try to solve that problem quietly w/ as little fuss as possible. I believe men are more likely to just throw the problem out in front of everyone and get to the bottom of it as quickly as possible. Women are also more used to taking a quiet support role like what I do as a stay at home mom. My job is just as important to our family as my husbands but he will always get more credit for going to work everyday than I do. I don't think in the case that is referred to in the article that the women's roles are any less because they don't speak up in a public forum as much (look at Elizabeth Warren or Nancy Pilosi) they just have a different way of getting things done. We all do what works for us, as long as women are still making strides and rising to those higher positions of power then how they get there and how much they speak up or how loudly doesn't matter in the long run. What matters is whether or not they are getting things done.
I think you picked up on an important point from the original study - the observed difference may be far more about confrontational norms than how much a given gender wants to talk. After all, this was a study of how much each gender is talking in a very specific context, which may be affected by myriad variables.
The presumption that these women must be muzzling themselves is the only offensive part to me. Not all women are naturally external processors. The puzzling thing to me here is that the men speak so much. I would think it would be the internal processors of BOTH sexes who would have the advantage in public positions, since thinking through something out loud can be a major liability when the mics are on.
Every one knows that in order for a woman to get to the top she has to work twice as hard as a male. Men are always treated better than women. But slowly women are finding equality in the work place. I still think it is a boys club where men just pat each other on the back for being such great guys. Check out the golf courses...full of men...someday we will have a woman president...such a great thing to aspire for. Equality in the work place.
Men are starting to be stay at home dads...maybe then they will value the role of raising children.
I think the fact that the author refers to women's speech as "blabbing" and "chatting" and "chattering" is a perfect example of how women's speech is denigrated. She could have used the words, talk, inform, speak, direct. She seems to reinforce the diminishment of women's words. Lose-lose.
sounds kinky to me ??? a Muzzle, do they like being tied up to?
If dr brescoll likes it,I'd muzzle her--fur mancles,etc She's a good looking woman
Smart women know enough to keep quiet. And we also know that no one listens to us, anyway. So why bother?
I have participated in many corporate meetings where men seem to be less willing to contribute ideas. Men appear to be more comfortable maintaining the status quo rather than make contributions that would improve a company. Women are more outspoken in this regard; this has just been my observation in the corporate world. I would not consider the average woman as outspoken, although given the opportunity many women can and have made important contributions that make companies more successful. Based on scientific fact women are better communicators than men and this is largely because our brains are networked for processing and conveying of messages more efficiently. Maybe this is one reason some men find female communication difficult to understand. This is not to say men are not gifted in other ways.
Lyllith's comment that women are better communicators than men could also point to quality of discussion over quantity.