To what degree are the differences between men and women truly innate? To what degree are they culturally learned?–These are the questions that John A. List and Uri Gneezy have laid the foundation for in Chapter 2 of The Why Axis, but in Chapter 3 the two economists send a very clear message:
“Don’t under estimate women. We may have socialized them into a society that suppresses their innate abilities, but they can over come that very easily. It is also profitable for companies and institutions to encourage women to be bold, competitive, influential leaders.”
Perhaps we shouldn’t need List and Gneezy to spell this out for all of us with graphs and stats, but it just goes to show how much ‘scientific’ evidence we need to motivate real changes in the corporate world.
How many more studies do we need to spell out, “Why your next board member should be a woman” before there are enough women board members to make an actual difference in the way a patriarchal civilization operates.