Biology at Work: Rethinking Sexual EqualityRutgers University Press, 2002 M06 6 - 288 páginas Does biology help explain why women, on average, earn less money than men? Is there any evolutionary basis for the scarcity of female CEOs in Fortune 500 companies? According to Kingsley Browne, the answer may be yes. Biology at Work brings an evolutionary perspective to bear on issues of women in the workplace: the "glass ceiling," the "gender gap" in pay, sexual harassment, and occupational segregation. While acknowledging the role of discrimination and sexist socialization, Browne suggests that until we factor real biological differences between men and women into the equation, the explanation remains incomplete. Browne looks at behavioral differences between men and women as products of different evolutionary pressures facing them throughout human history. Womens biological investment in their offspring has led them to be on average more nurturing and risk averse, and to value relationships over competition. Men have been biologically rewarded, over human history, for displays of strength and skill, risk taking, and status acquisition. These behavioral differences have numerous workplace consequences. Not surprisingly, sex differences in the drive for status lead to sex differences in the achievement of status. Browne argues that decision makers should recognize that policies based on the assumption of a single androgynous human nature are unlikely to be successful. Simply removing barriers to inequality will not achieve equality, as women and men typically value different things in the workplace and will make different workplace choices based on their different preferences. Rather than simply putting forward the "nature" side of the debate, Browne suggests that dichotomies such as nature/nurture have impeded our understanding of the origins of human behavior. Through evolutionary biology we can understand not only how natural selection has created predispositions toward certain types of behavior but also how the social environment interacts with these predispositions to produce observed behavioral patterns.
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Página 2
... positions of high status; where women leave their babies with their husbands who stay home and keep house; where the army, navy, air force, and marines are made up mostly of women; and where almost all mathematicians, physicists, and ...
... positions of high status; where women leave their babies with their husbands who stay home and keep house; where the army, navy, air force, and marines are made up mostly of women; and where almost all mathematicians, physicists, and ...
Página 3
... position unique in the animal kingdom. Al- though adherents of that model would readily attribute an inherent “nature” to all other animals, they are reluctant to do so for humans. They surely would not expect a hyena raised in a group ...
... position unique in the animal kingdom. Al- though adherents of that model would readily attribute an inherent “nature” to all other animals, they are reluctant to do so for humans. They surely would not expect a hyena raised in a group ...
Página 5
... position in the same status hierarchies. Today, almost all positions in the labor market are for- mally open to women, the primary exception being certain combat positions in the military.12 Nonetheless, a high degree of de facto ...
... position in the same status hierarchies. Today, almost all positions in the labor market are for- mally open to women, the primary exception being certain combat positions in the military.12 Nonetheless, a high degree of de facto ...
Página 6
... positions, compared to 43 percent of such positions in 1995. These changes represent a genuine revolution in the American workplace. Despite these striking advances, however, women are far from achieving parity in a number ofareas. They ...
... positions, compared to 43 percent of such positions in 1995. These changes represent a genuine revolution in the American workplace. Despite these striking advances, however, women are far from achieving parity in a number ofareas. They ...
Página 7
... positions is a goal both admirable and achievable—is a predictable consequence of their failure to ap- preciate the full contours ofhuman nature. For reasons having substantial roots in evolutionary biology, men and women differ in ...
... positions is a goal both admirable and achievable—is a predictable consequence of their failure to ap- preciate the full contours ofhuman nature. For reasons having substantial roots in evolutionary biology, men and women differ in ...
Contenido
1 | |
11 | |
Women in the Workplace | 32 |
The Proximate and Ultimate Origins of Sex Differences | 91 |
Public Policy and Sex Differences in Workplace Outcomes | 131 |
Sex and the Workplace Sexuality and Sexual Harassment | 189 |
Notes | 219 |
Bibliography | 233 |
Index | 269 |
About the Author | 282 |
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activities affirmative action aggressive Alice Eagly androgens argued argument asserted attributes average behavior biological blue-collar boys career cause chapter child comparable worth comparable-worth compensation competition David Lubinski differential discrimination disparity dominance earnings effect effect size employers ences engineering environment equal evidence example explanation fact factors force full-time gender gap girls Glass Ceiling greater Gutek hierarchies higher hormones housework human husband important increase individuals influence interest kibbutz labor large numbers less levels Lubinski males and females man’s mate math and science mathematical measures men’s number of women nurturance outcomes parental leave part-time pattern percent performance physical positions preferences productivity psychology reason relatively reproductive success require responsible result salary scores selection sex differences sex segregation sexual harassment sexually dimorphic social society spatial ability statistical status stereotypes substantial suggest testosterone tion traits variables verbal ability victims wage gap woman workers workplace