《哈佛商業(yè)評(píng)論》最新發(fā)表的一篇文章中,兩位研究者問道:我們怎么才能知道女性之間到底會(huì)不會(huì)彼此幫助? 在理想世界里,答案是“當(dāng)然了!為什么不?!”但我們非常清楚地知道,在某些情況下,特別是在存在競爭或有固定配額時(shí),如何團(tuán)隊(duì)中還有其他女性,事情會(huì)要難一些。 因此,研究人員選擇了一個(gè)歷史上有意思的時(shí)間地點(diǎn)——20世紀(jì)80年代的西點(diǎn)軍校——來探索這個(gè)問題。美國這所軍事學(xué)院為研究者提供了得出結(jié)論所必須的條件:通過將學(xué)員隨機(jī)分配到不同的連隊(duì),西點(diǎn)軍校無意間建立了“試驗(yàn)組”和“對(duì)照組”——有多名女性共處的連隊(duì)和只有唯一女性的連隊(duì)。 兩名研究人員加州州立大學(xué)富勒頓分校的尼克·亨廷頓·克萊恩和華盛頓大學(xué)的埃琳娜·羅斯,研究了西點(diǎn)軍校1981年至1984年的學(xué)生,當(dāng)時(shí)距該校首次允許招錄女學(xué)員不過幾年時(shí)間。研究者發(fā)現(xiàn),當(dāng)連隊(duì)里新加入一名女學(xué)員后,“女學(xué)員成功升入下一學(xué)年的概率增加了2.5%。”這意味著,原本女學(xué)員的升級(jí)比例比男學(xué)員低5%,如果連隊(duì)中新加入兩名女學(xué)員,就可以消除這個(gè)差距。 研究人員稱,如果想將他們的研究發(fā)現(xiàn)應(yīng)用到現(xiàn)代生活,有幾點(diǎn)注意事項(xiàng)。首先,請(qǐng)記住,他們的研究對(duì)象是20世紀(jì)80年代初期的西點(diǎn)軍校,當(dāng)時(shí)學(xué)校里絕大多數(shù)都是男性,學(xué)員基本上與外界隔絕,男女學(xué)員都經(jīng)常受到嚴(yán)重的欺侮。2018年外面的世界對(duì)于女性少數(shù)群體面臨的挑戰(zhàn)有更充分的認(rèn)知,領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者也更愿意——或者至少我們希望他們更愿意——減少這些障礙。話雖如此,研究人員得出結(jié)論稱:“最好的證據(jù)是,將女性分配到不同團(tuán)隊(duì)時(shí)如果能注意性別問題,可以有力增加在男性主導(dǎo)領(lǐng)域中女性的表現(xiàn)。” 研究結(jié)論還包括我認(rèn)為至關(guān)重要的一點(diǎn):女性進(jìn)步比率的增加并未降低男性同伴成功的可能性。“換句話說,”研究人員寫道,“增加團(tuán)隊(duì)中女性的人數(shù)只有好處沒有壞處。”(財(cái)富中文網(wǎng)) 譯者:Agatha |
In a new article for Harvard Business Review, two researchers asked the question: How do we know whether women actually help other women? In an ideal world, the answer would be, “Hello! Why wouldn’t we?!” But we know, all too well, that there are circumstances, especially in competitive settings or where quotas are present, when being in the company of other women makes things harder. So the researchers turned to an interesting time and place in history to weigh their query—West Point in the early 1980s. The United States Military Academy provided what they needed to make a determination: By randomly assigning cadets to companies, West Point unintentionally created “treatment groups”—women in companies with other women—and “control groups,” or women in companies without other women. The researchers, Nick Huntington-Klein of California State University Fullerton and Elaina Rose of the University of Washington, studied the classes from 1981 to 1984, just a few years after West Point first allowed women, and found that when another woman was added to a company, it “increased the likelihood a woman would progress to the next year 2.5%.” That means an extra two women in a company would erase the five percentage point deficit in women’s progression rate versus men’s. The researchers provide a few caveats for applying their findings to modern day. First, remember that this was the early 1980s, when West Point was overwhelmingly male, cadets were largely cut off from the outside world, and men and women there were often subject to severe hazing. The outside world in 2018 is much more aware of the challenges associated with being a female minority and there is—at least we hope—more willingness among leaders to mitigate those hurdles. That being said, the researchers conclude: “the best evidence is that attending to gender when assigning women to groups can be a powerful tool for increasing the representation of women in male-dominated fields.” The study also includes this point, which I found especially pertinent: that women’s increased likelihood of progress did not make their male peers less likely to succeed. “In other words,” the researchers write, “there was only an upside to increasing the number of women in the group.” |