'Nice' Women Earn Less Than Their Assertive Peers

The nicer or more agreeable a woman is at work, the lower her salary is likely to be, a new study has claimed. Researchers from Tel Aviv University and University of Haifa are Israel, examined status inconsistencies between men and women through the lens of traditional male and female characteristics. Dominant, assertive women, who clearly express their expectations and do not retreat from their demands, are compensated better than their more accommodating female peers. According to the researchers, the same goes for dominant men versus their more conciliatory male counterparts – but even dominant women earn far less than all of their male colleagues. Researchers have witnessed dramatic changes in the definition of traditionally male and female qualities over the past several decades. They found that women are not aware that more agreeable women are being punished for being nice. The nice women they polled in their study even believed they were earning more than they deserved. For the purpose of their study, the researchers surveyed 375 men and women at a Dutch electronics company with 1,390 employees. The subjects were selected at random from all 12 of the company departments.