Risky Business

Women have certainly bridged much of the gender gap in the past sixty years; ask a girl today if she knows who June Cleaver is and she will most likely give you a blank stare. Despite the fact that girls no longer aim solely for Leave-it-to-Beaver-style domestic happiness, it seems that we have now reached an impasse in terms of gender equality. Even though around 58 percent of all people earning bachelor’s degrees are females, women seem to be unable to translate this educational advantage into concrete gains in other fields. This dilemma has significant roots in the unwillingness of girls to seek out and take risks, starting as early as preschool.

For example, a study of Carnegie Mellon graduates with master’s degrees in business-related fields found that the starting salaries of the men were on average four thousand dollars higher than those of the females. Further examination of the applicants revealed that only seven percent of females had asked for a higher salary during the interview process compared to 57 percent of men. Those who had asked for more money had starting salaries that were 4053 dollars higher than the salaries of those who did not, meaning this gender gap in pay could be attributed almost entirely to the fact that women did not ask for more money. Similarly, many of today’s other gender inequalities are rooted in the failure of females to seek out and take necessary risks; men are far more likely to be chief executive officers of major companies and start their own businesses than their female counterparts.

How can we change this harmful mindset? The answer goes back to childhood. The expectation for girls in early youth is to behave in a way that minimizes risk; girls are not often praised for successfully navigating a bike down a mountain or jumping off a swing and landing on her feet. We must change the tacit expectations girls encounter in childhood, or our daughters will irrevocably internalize the risk-averse mentality that so many of us subconsciously face even today.

A study of fourth and fifth grade teacher evaluations sheds light on the unique circumstances girls face during childhood. Fifty-four percent of negative criticism directed at boys centered on their intellectual capacity, while inadequate intelligence was cited as the problem in nearly ninety percent of girls’ negative criticism. Under these skewed perceptions and low expectations, girls are not poised to develop the same confidence in their abilities as boys, playing into their risk-averse nature.

Girls eventually believe that they are simply not talented in certain “risky” areas, or that there are more likely to make mistakes in boyish activities. For example, when students are asked to rate their future  success in mathematics, girls consistently rate theirs lower than boys. Similarly, if you ask children whether a boy or a girl is more likely to get hurt riding a bicycle or climbing a tree, most agree that the girl is much more likely to injure herself. In reality, the opposite is true.

Additionally, females routinely underestimate their own abilities (which may have its roots as early on as mothers of girls underestimating their infant’s crawling ability) feeding into this avoidance of risk. If a girl believes she is at risk of injury riding a bicycle regardless of her actual skill set, she is likely to grow into a woman who lets her fear of seeming pushy or ungrateful stop her from asking for a raise.

We need to intervene early on in girls’ lives to stop this pattern from developing. By encouraging girls to start taking small risks that may seem trivial, like jumping over a log or sliding backwards down a slide, they will eventually become accustomed to the success that follows, removing the fear that usually accompanies such risks and building confidence that will accompany them into adulthood.

Lea J. Hachigian ’12, a Crimson editorial editor, is a neurobiology concentrator in Leverett House.