A study at the Columbia Business School recently exposed how, in the work place, women are asked for help more frequently, and that their help is less appreciated than that of their male counterparts.
Sharon Meers, contributor to the Wall Street Journal, thinks this behavior may be an after-effect of teaching our children that neatness and niceness are virtues primarily for girls. Later in life, she muses, women are looked at merely as “merry wives of the workplace.”
The results of the study only serve to prove her point: Another connotation made was the “indebtedness” one felt after asking a woman for help in relation to how enthusiastic she was in offering her assistance. As it turns out, the more “agreeable” the woman was helping with the task, the less the aided will feel they owe her anything. “As if they assumed she just likes to help,” Meers comments.
To answer your question, no the males involved with this study were not Don Draper. Then again, Don Draper probably would never have asked for a woman’s help in the first place. So three cheers for that droplet of progress!
“The bottom line,” she says, “We do our daughters (and sons) no favors when we support the belief that ‘women are happy to help.'” Straight up, Sharon Meers! I ain’t makin’ nobody’s copies!
Thanks to the Wall Street Journal
Image via retro-space/Flickr
