As I head out for a month (or as my husband, the Engineer, reminds me, 3.5 weeks) of holidays in Europe, I can’t help but wonder how different I will find the world out there versus the world here. Even in an international airport such as Toronto (as I thoroughly enjoy my seven hour Air Canada stopover), there is such a diversity of people - coming in, moving through, leaving the country.

 I wonder about the diversity and leadership lessons I will be able to take away from the rich history and current challenges of the countries we will visit. Do you reflect on diversity when you travel? Do you compare your behaviour and norms to theirs and think they should be like you? Or do see different as only different?

In the previous blog, we discussed how people respond to stress in different ways, depending on gender.

Some sociologists believe that women consistently underestimate their ability and minimize their risk of failure. In her book, “Women Don’t Ask: Negotiation and the Gender Divide”, Linda Babcock studied students graduating from Carnegie Mellon University with a Masters degree in a business related field. She found that the starting salaries of the men were about 8% on average higher than those of the women. The men were paid about $4,000 more.

Babcock looked to see who asked for more money during the job finding process. About 7% of the female students had asked, compared with 57% of the male students. Students that asked for more money received a starting salary that was $4,053 higher on average than those who did not ask. The male students were more inclined to take the risk of offending the hiring human resource officer for the sake of a higher starting salary!

Have you seen this play out in your life or workplace?

Read more on our site www.martrain.org!

As children, boys enjoy taking risks. Most boys are also impressed by other boys who take risks. Especially if the risk-taker succeeds.  

Girls are less likely to enjoy risk taking for its own sake and are much less likely to be impressed by risk taking behaviour in others. Girls may be willing to take risks but they are less likely to seek out risky situations just for the sake of living dangerously.

Part of this difference is that risky and dangerous activities trigger a ‘flight or flight’ response that gives a tingly charge, an excitement that many boys find irresistible. Men physiologically respond to risky situations with an increased heart rate, dilated pupils, and a surge of adrenaline in the blood to prepare them to fight or run away.

Females, however, respond to threat and confrontation with the ‘puke and pee’ response – they feel dizzy, nauseous and need to go to the bathroom frequently. This idea might not align with your understanding of threat response. But remember that little study has actually been done on women’s specific response to threat and stressful situations. Most scientific data is based on male studies and extrapolated to include women.

The assertive male risk-taking strategy sometimes works for men and sometimes leads them to over-estimate their ability. In a 1996 issue of the American Journal of Public Health, Jonathan Howland wrote that nearly all drowning victims are male and that men consistently overestimate their ability to swim in threatening situations.

The study found that women consistently underestimate their ability to minimize their risk of failure.

Does this impact how men and women take risks in the workplace?

Tune into the next blog and find out some bizarre facts. Find out more

about Jeanne’ s ideas at www.martrain.org.

A study done by Bradford University in the UK proved that women have fewer accidents and traffic violations. Internationally, men not only drive faster, they incur the majority of driving offences, have more accidents and overall, overestimate their driving prowess. This desire for men to take more risks than their female counterparts has been historically tied to socialization – but now we are seeing the biological component of these behaviours play a part as well.

Tune in for the next blog to find out how our hormones and brains make men want to ‘fight or flee’ and women ‘puke and pee’ in risky situations!

See our website at www.martrain.org for free book chapter downloads and other diversity articles.

Jeanne Martinson, Diversity Strategist