Why Can't a Woman be More Like a Man?

Abstract

Recent literature suggests that women's success in “a man's world” is partially contingent on learning the rules of men's “games.” Here, it appears that game-playing in work organizations (like game-playing in everyday life) has its primary site in the arena of face-to-face interaction. Thus, aspiring women are advised to “dress for success,” attend to the subtleties of “power desking,” and, of special interest here, “speak up” in order to be heard. Research reviewed here suggests that the significance of actions changes according to the gender of the actors and that women conversing with men may have special difficulties being heard even when they do “speak up.”