The Psychology of Gender 4th Edition

Paid Worker Role and Health 467

differently from those of men. Recall from

Chapter 7 that women who behave in asser-

tive, agentic ways are not liked—especially by

men—and thus are not influential. Women

may have to find a way to negotiate that does

not compromise perceptions of femininity.

Family Ties. A third reason for the wage

gap is related to family ties—what is known

as the “mommy tax.” Of the relatively few

women who have made it to the top in the

corporate or noncorporate world, half of those

women have no children (Cheung & Halpern,

2010). Only one of the three women who sit

on the Supreme Court has children. In her

bookThe Price of Motherhood: Why the Most

ImportantJobintheWorldIsStilltheLeastVal-

ued, Crittenden (2001) states “motherhood is

now the single greatest obstacle left in the path

to economic equality for women” (p. 87). The

mommy tax refers to the fact that women have

primary responsibility for children, which de-

tracts from their wages. When women have

they are asking on behalf of others (Babcock &

Laschever, 2003). Because seeing that others’

needs are met is part of women’s gender role,

women are actually more assertive on behalf

of others than themselves. Laboratory stud-

ies have shown that women will make larger

requests when they are made on behalf of

others than themselves, whereas men make

larger requests for themselves than for oth-

ers. One study showed that women identified

a lower salary request as pushy compared to

men and negotiated a lower salary than men

onlywhen they were requesting on behalf of

themselves (Amanatullah & Morris, 2010).

When the request was on behalf of another

person, the differences between women and

men disappeared (see Figure 12.13).

Is the solution to teach women to behave

more like men during negotiation? Perhaps

not. Employers may be more receptive to

negotiation among men than women (Wade,

2001). Negotiation takes place in a social con-

text, and women’s negotiations are viewed

Self

Female Male

Other Self Other

40,000

42,000

Backlash

(Perceived as Pushy)

44,000

46,000

48,000

50,000

52,000

38,000

Self

Female Male

Other Self Other

40,000

42,000

Salary44,000

46,000

48,000

50,000

52,000

38,000

FIGURE 12.13 Women indicate that a lower salary is perceived as pushy compared to men when

asking on behalf of themselves but not others. Women also negotiate less salary than men when negoti-

ating on behalf of themselves than others.

Source: Adapted from Amanatullah and Morris (2010).

M12_HELG0185_04_SE_C12.indd 467 6/21/11 4:23 PM