The Trouble with Bright Girls
So, this article was floating around facebook. In short: women are less successful in men in the workplace because of social conditioning which results in them not trying hard enough.
I don't really like the tone much, it seems awfully victim-blamey to me, particularly the message that if only you kept trying you would make it in this institutionally sexist world! Bitch, please.
However, the article makes an interesting point. In the study sited, they found that generally when girls succeeded they were told they were good, while boys were told that they succeeded because they tried hard. Yeah, there was only one study done at one school in the 80s, so I'm not exactly going to take this as gospel, but fine. Let's run with this theory. So girls think their success is innate, while boys think they worked hard to achieve it. When faced with a difficult task, girls were more likely to give up and boys were more likely to try even harder until they got it.
This still sounds kinda bullshity to me, but then close to the end:
"Are there things you decided long ago that you could never be good at? Skills you believed you would never possess?"
I hear the phrase "I could never do that" almost every time I mention any of my circus skills. And looking back, I don't think I have ever heard a man say that. I typically respond with "you probably could if you worked at it," because barring disability, most people can learn how to do what I do. Hell, depending on the disability it's not big deal-- there are blind jugglers and amputee aerialists. It might take some people longer than others, but it's not impossible. When I say this, though, the (usually able-bodied) lady I'm talking to will laugh nervously or shake her head, then change the subject.
I don't try to hide how long it took me to learn this stuff, or how much work it is. But if deep down they believe my abilities are innate rather than earned, of course they think they would never be able to do it.
On the flip side, when I tell men about what I can do, I get a raised eyebrow, respectful nod, and a "wow, you must be really strong" or "that sounds like a lot of work."
I realize that anecdotes from my life are not data and do not prove a theory. After all, most of the students at the circus school are women, so obviously there are lots of women who know about working hard to achieve success. Still, it's interesting enough to make me want to write about and probably worth investigating further when it's not the middle of the night and I should be sleeping.