Read Online The Why Axis: Hidden Motives and the Undiscovered Economics of Everyday Life by Uri Gneezy, John List - Free Book Online
Authors: Uri Gneezy, John List
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process was long and competitive, and hundreds of people had applied.
To sort the wheat from the chaff, the hiring manager and human resources department asked top candidates, including Liz, to participate in multiple interviews. As the process became more competitive, the candidates were asked to design an outer envelope for a direct mail package within an hour. If done correctly, this chore would actually have taken much longer, and it had little to do with the actual job of managing an in-house team of twenty designers. The test had more to do with testing an ability to work fast in a competitive environment—more appropriate to, say, a position working on a trading floor—than it had to do with the actual work of getting people to open envelopes.
At the end of the day, the company hired a man who did better in the competitive process. Without having specific competencies in mind, the company screened out the better candidate. For Liz, it meant that she “lost” to someone who was less qualified. For the company, it meant that they passed on the more talented applicant in favor of the more competitive one.
As it turns out, many hiring managers base their hiring decisions on intuition and what was done in the past (typically how it was done by their old boss). In many such cases, these old hiring practices were based on a notion that was either misconceived or has now changed—and usually favored men. In study after study, it’s been shown that when members of an all-male board have to pick a new board member or a CEO, they usually hire someone who looks likethem. 14 A 2012 University of Dayton Law School paper noted that “virtually every recent report or study describes women’s progress in achieving greater representation on corporate boards of directors as ‘stalled’ or some similar adjective,” 15 despite the fact that when women do serve on boards, their companies’ stock values rise. 16
But you can only keep top talent down for so long in markets. Soon, the time will come for women to enjoy their rightful places at the helms of organizations, and companies that act sooner rather than later will benefit.
In the next chapter, we’ll get to the bottom of all this.
CHAPTER THREE
What Can a Matrilineal Society Teach Us About Women and Competition?
A Visit to the Khasi
As you saw in the previous chapter, all of our experiments—from those we conducted online with Craigslist, to the Technion, to the races with the schoolkids, to our visit to the Masai—confirmed that women just don’t like to compete as much as men and react to competitive scenarios differently than men do. This, in and of itself, provides an intriguing explanation for the gender gap.
But, we still wanted to know, why is this so? Is there an important innate difference between the sexes that would lead them to act this way regardless of how they are raised? Or do societal influences play a vital role in our competitive inclinations?
Our visit to the matrilineal society of the Khasi helped to answer these foundational questions. Let’s explore the exotic life of the Khasi. Put on your seatbelt, because you are in for an incredible ride.
Minott (the driver who picked us up at the airport after we landed in India, whom you met in our Introduction) was our initial guide into the matrilineal society of the Khasi people. With him, we crossed over into a bizarre world of reverse sexism. By our standards, of course, it seemed unfair that Minott could not own a house, even if he could have afforded one, and that his personal opportunities were stymied. At the same time, we got a fabulous window into what happens when women hold their culture’s economic purse strings.
When Minott first drove us from Guwahati airport into the city of Shillong, every square foot of the road was filled with people—women in colorful saris, dark-haired men in cotton shirts, half-naked beggars,
To sort the wheat from the chaff, the hiring manager and human resources department asked top candidates, including Liz, to participate in multiple interviews. As the process became more competitive, the candidates were asked to design an outer envelope for a direct mail package within an hour. If done correctly, this chore would actually have taken much longer, and it had little to do with the actual job of managing an in-house team of twenty designers. The test had more to do with testing an ability to work fast in a competitive environment—more appropriate to, say, a position working on a trading floor—than it had to do with the actual work of getting people to open envelopes.
At the end of the day, the company hired a man who did better in the competitive process. Without having specific competencies in mind, the company screened out the better candidate. For Liz, it meant that she “lost” to someone who was less qualified. For the company, it meant that they passed on the more talented applicant in favor of the more competitive one.
As it turns out, many hiring managers base their hiring decisions on intuition and what was done in the past (typically how it was done by their old boss). In many such cases, these old hiring practices were based on a notion that was either misconceived or has now changed—and usually favored men. In study after study, it’s been shown that when members of an all-male board have to pick a new board member or a CEO, they usually hire someone who looks likethem. 14 A 2012 University of Dayton Law School paper noted that “virtually every recent report or study describes women’s progress in achieving greater representation on corporate boards of directors as ‘stalled’ or some similar adjective,” 15 despite the fact that when women do serve on boards, their companies’ stock values rise. 16
But you can only keep top talent down for so long in markets. Soon, the time will come for women to enjoy their rightful places at the helms of organizations, and companies that act sooner rather than later will benefit.
In the next chapter, we’ll get to the bottom of all this.
CHAPTER THREE
What Can a Matrilineal Society Teach Us About Women and Competition?
A Visit to the Khasi
As you saw in the previous chapter, all of our experiments—from those we conducted online with Craigslist, to the Technion, to the races with the schoolkids, to our visit to the Masai—confirmed that women just don’t like to compete as much as men and react to competitive scenarios differently than men do. This, in and of itself, provides an intriguing explanation for the gender gap.
But, we still wanted to know, why is this so? Is there an important innate difference between the sexes that would lead them to act this way regardless of how they are raised? Or do societal influences play a vital role in our competitive inclinations?
Our visit to the matrilineal society of the Khasi helped to answer these foundational questions. Let’s explore the exotic life of the Khasi. Put on your seatbelt, because you are in for an incredible ride.
Minott (the driver who picked us up at the airport after we landed in India, whom you met in our Introduction) was our initial guide into the matrilineal society of the Khasi people. With him, we crossed over into a bizarre world of reverse sexism. By our standards, of course, it seemed unfair that Minott could not own a house, even if he could have afforded one, and that his personal opportunities were stymied. At the same time, we got a fabulous window into what happens when women hold their culture’s economic purse strings.
When Minott first drove us from Guwahati airport into the city of Shillong, every square foot of the road was filled with people—women in colorful saris, dark-haired men in cotton shirts, half-naked beggars,
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