LIE TO ME?
There is an article on NPR, Why Men Outnumber Women Attending Business Schools, in which the host David Greene and the respondant Shankar Vedantam talked about the business world that is significantly dominated by men. In the article, Shankar pointed out that there was a difference in students' reactions to ethical dilemmas. For example, in a real estate negotiation scenario, buyers want to turn a property to a commercial project, and sellers want their homes to be preserved. The question is whether the buyers should reveal their intentions to the sellers. The sad but interesting part was that they found everyone was more likely to lie to a woman. That means both men and women feel like they can take advantage of a female negotiator more than they can take advantage of a male negotiator. Another finding was that men are more likely to lie on behalf of the buyer asserting that they are not trying to turn a property to a commercial project. However, women are more likely to be upfront and tell the truth. In a similar scenario, when people were asked if they would include an inferior gradient in a product (you make more money but people get hurt), women were more likely to experience the moral emotions and said no. So do these facts explain why women are not as successful as men in conducting business?
ethical doubts and women are often targeted for deception. In general, women are more emotional than men. With this perspective, people are more likely to take advantage of women's sympathies and moral belief to gain benefits for themselves. Thus, women often become the victims of lies. Some people argue that business is the world of shrewed people. Conducting business is all about making profits and accomplishing goals. However, with the point that women are more often facing ethical dilemmas, instead of teaching women to be less sensitive, I think it is more worthwhile to make the business world more ethical.
This is when the issue of gender inequality rises. The dominant power of men make the "shrewedness" a rule of business world. It seems that people who do not obey the rule will eventually have to drop out. However, all rules are made by human-beings and there is no absolutely right rule. Therefore, to increase representation of women in the business world may have a positive impact which is to make the overall society more become ethical. All in all, rule leads the game in the world of business.