Cat logomenu

Advice for Women Seeking Equal Pay: Smile

Or, you know, don’t—because you’ll be perpetuating discrimination.

A pair of studies conducted at Carnegie Melon[sic] illustrate the problem: In one, male graduates of the school’s management program were four times as likely to negotiate their first salaries out of college than their female peers; in another, women who did attempt to negotiate were seen as overly aggressive, unless they “conformed to feminine stereotypes”—smiles and nods—when asking for more.

I’m with Amanda Hess, here: no judgment at all toward women who adopt this technique, but I feel very uncomfortable with essentially telling women to play the patriarchy’s game to get ahead.

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