Law Students

Would people respond better to what you say if you were a man?

By sintecho

In an article on women's leadership styles, Nicholas Kristof references research that "women, compared with men, tend to excel in consensus-building and certain other skills useful in leadership." In explaining why women have not had more success in achieving positions in government despite these strengths, Kristof hypothesizes that "in the televsion age, female leaders also have to navigate public prejudices." These "prejudices", as it turns out, are of the sort that affect women lawyers as well. Kristof cites the "Goldberg paradigm," an attribution arising out of a study in which people read an article or speech with one group of readers told that the speech is by a man while the other group is told that the speech is by a woman. Dishearteningly for those of us women who speak in public in front of juries or clients, "in countries all over the world, the very same words are rated higher coming from a man."

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Full post as published by Ms. JD on February 23, 2008 (boomark / email).