在男性主宰的领域求职 你必须展现出女汉子的气概

Any woman who has applied for a job in a male-dominated field faces a quandary: Does she play up her feminine strengths, such as being supportive or a good listener, or emphasize traits more associated with men, such as assertiveness?

在男性主宰的行业，女性求职时常常会面临这样一种困惑：应该发挥女性的特长，例如乐于助人和善于倾听，还是应该强调更多与男性有关的品质，例如果断？

It turns out that showcasing “manliness” is the better strategy, according to a study in the latest issue of Psychology of Women Quarterly.

最新一期《女性心理学季刊》（Psychology of Women Quarterly）发表的一项研究显示，展现“男子气概”是更好的策略。

In a laboratory experiment, a group of more than 600 undergrads from Michigan State evaluated a group of women applying for an engineering management job. They concluded that women who described themselves using traits traditionally associated with men — independence, or a focus on achievement — were seen as more fitting for the job than those who emphasized traits often seen as more feminine (warmth, supportiveness, and nurturing).

在实验中，来自密歇根州立大学（Michigan State）的600多名本科生，对一组申请工程管理职位的女性进行了评估。最终的评估结果是，他们认为，使用通常与男性相关的特征——如独立或注重业绩等——来描述自己的女性，比强调更女性化的品质（热情、乐于助人和体贴等）的女性求职者，更适合这个岗位。

“We found that ‘manning up’ seemed to be an effective strategy, because it was seen as necessary for the job,” said Michigan State’s Ann Marie Ryan, who co-authored the study with Jennifer Wessel and several others.

密歇根州立大学的安妮o玛丽o瑞安表示：“我们发现，‘像男人一样’似乎是有效的策略，因为这是工作的需要。”瑞安与珍妮佛o维塞尔和其他同事共同组织了该项研究。

The study is the latest in a growing body of work examining how women survive and thrive in the often-male dominated worlds such as top management.

对于女性如何在男性主导的领域生存和发展，近期出现了越来越多的讨论，这项最新研究便是其中之一。

Ryan and her team chose engineering because women are so poorly represented. Only 11.7 percent of engineers, according to the National Science Foundation, were women in 2011. Research released this week found nearly 40 percent of female engineering graduates quit the profession or never even get a job in the field.

瑞安及其团队之所以选择工程领域，是因为该领域女性极少。据国家科学基金会（National Science Foundation）的统计，2011年，仅有11.7%的工程师为女性。上周公布的研究发现，接近40%的工程专业女性毕业生，放弃了所学专业，或者根本没有找到工程类工作。

In the first phase of a three-year NSF study that surveyed 5,300 engineering alumnae spanning six decades, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Educational Psychology Professor NadyaFouad also found that two-thirds of those who left the field within five years said they pursued better opportunities in other fields, while a third stayed home with children because companies wouldn’t accommodate them.

美国国家科学基金会三年期研究的第一阶段，对60多年内的5,300名工程专业女毕业生进行了调查，此外，威斯康星大学密尔沃基分校（University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee）教育心理学教授娜迪亚o弗瓦德还从研究中发现，在5年内离开工程领域的女性毕业生中，有三分之二表示她们在其他领域找到更好的机会，另外三分之一则在家相夫教子，因为没有公司愿意接受她们。

“These women are more vulnerable to being pushed out because they typically aren’t in the internal ‘good old boys’ network,” said Fouad, who conducted her research with MSU colleague Romila Singh.

弗瓦德与密歇根州立大学的罗米拉o辛格合作进行了该项研究。她表示：“这些女性更容易遭到排挤，因为她们不属于内部的‘好哥们’圈子。”

One of the biggest challenges for women in male-dominated fields, such as science, according to earlier research, is combating perceptions that certain top management jobs are “male positions” that require a skill set more associated with men.

早期的研究显示，在男性占主导的领域，如科学领域，女性面临的最大挑战之一，是如何克服某些根深蒂固的观念，即某些高管职位是“男性专属岗位”，需要的是与男性相关的技能。

The research community in the past has been divided over how women should combat these inherent biases.

对于女性如何克服这种固有偏见，研究领域也曾出现分歧。

Some have found that women face a potential backlash if they attempt to highlight their tough side, while a 2011 study in the Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology found that women who are aggressive, assertive, and confident — and can turn those traits on and off depending on the situation — get more promotions than either men or other women.

有些研究认为，如果试图展示她们硬朗的一面，女性可能会面临激烈的反对，而《职业与组织心理学期刊》（Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology）2011年的研究发现，具备侵略性、果敢、自信等品质，并且可以根据具体情况展现这些品质的女性，会比男性或其他女性得到更多升职机会。

Fouad said much of that research is misplaced because it implies women themselves need to change to fit expectations of these fields and that it amounts to “blaming the victim.”

弗瓦德说道，那项研究很大一部分都存在误导，因为它暗示女性自己需要做出改变，来满足这些领域的预期，这就像是在“怪罪受害者”。

“The narrative in all these articles is always what is wrong with these women. They are not succeeding. They are not staying. They are not persisting in this male-dominated occupation,” she said. “We are saying these aren’t the right questions to be asking. The onus should not be on women to change their behavior to fit into some interviewer’s perception of how women behave.”

她说道：“这些文章中都是一副‘女性错在哪里’的口吻。她们没有成功。她们没有留下来。她们没有在男性主导的领域坚持下来。我们认为，这些都不是症结所在。女性没有义务改变自己的行为，来迎合个别面试官对于女性行为方式的观念。”

Ryan, though, was careful to say that women should not attempt to reinvent themselves for a job in a male-dominated field, nor should they just toss out the male traits without linking them to characteristics of the job. She also said women shouldn’t be afraid to bring up their softer side as the interview goes along, although her study found bringing up the fact they are a woman without explaining its significance to the job resulted in “negative personal evaluations.”

但瑞安更为谨慎地表示，女性不应该为了在男性主导领域工作而彻底改变自己，也不应该不顾工作特性便抛弃男性特质。她还认为，在面试过程中，女性不必害怕展示自己更柔软的一面，虽然她的研究发现，如果只是表现出自己女性的一面，却不说明这对于工作的重要性，其结果往往是得到“负面的个人评价”。

“It’s not simply talk about this or don’t talk about that,” Ryan said.

瑞安表示：“这并非简单地说什么或不说什么的问题。”

“What I’m trying to look at is how do you talk about your social categories,” she added. “Is there a way to talk about being a woman in a male dominated field or ethnic minority in an organization that is not very diverse? Can you talk about it in a way where people feel comfortable with the interaction but also where you can make your point about your qualifications? Or are there ways to talk about it which people react negatively to?”

她补充道：“我正在研究的是如何谈论社会类别。有没有一种方式，可以用于在男性主导领域谈论身为女性的事实，或者在多样化程度不高的组织内谈论作为少数群体的事实？你的表达方式能否既让对方对这种交流感到舒服，又能明确说明自己的条件？有哪些表达方式会导致对方做出负面反应？”

Ryan’s work is part of the growing field of identity management in which researchers are examining how various groups looking for work handle potential bias. Among those that Ryan has looked at are military veterans, African-Americans, gays and lesbians, Arabs, older Americans and the disabled.

瑞安的研究属于快速发展的身份管理领域——研究人员正在研究不同求职群体应对潜在偏见的方式。研究对象包括退伍老兵、非洲裔美国人、同性恋、阿拉伯人、老年美国人和残疾人。

Ryan’s goal is for her research to lead to better guidance for prospective employees as well as improvements in way human resources departments deal with applicants.

瑞安研究的目标，是为潜在员工提供更有效的指导，并促使人力资源部门完善对待求职者的方式。

Companies, she said, could improve their online application process, possibly replacing a name with a number to avoid any potential bias as well as giving someone space to explain who they are beyond simply listing their gender, ethnicity or race.

她说道，公司可以完善其在线申请程序，例如用数字来代替姓名，以避免潜在偏见，并给求职者提供介绍自己的空间，而不是简单地列出他们的性别、民族或种族。

They could also train recruiters to be aware of their own biases coming into interviews and set up a monitoring system that would help uncover potential discrimination in the hiring process. Another option would be taping the job interviews.

此外，他们还可以培训招聘人员注意自己在招聘过程存在的偏见，并建立监督系统，帮助发现招聘过程中可能存在的歧视现象。另外一种选择是将面试过程录像存证。

“Because implicit bias is so insidious, I would actually record those interviews so that somebody can go back and audit,” Fouad said. “If the focus is on helping people get the most diverse and the best candidates and diverse pool of candidates, then all recruiters and interviewers need to know how they are reacting to various traits in individuals and they need to have that monitored so it is easily identified and corrected.”

弗瓦德说道：“由于内隐偏见非常隐蔽，因此我需要记录这些面试过程，以便进行后续审查。如果招聘人员和面试官的目的是帮助公司寻找最多样化和最优秀的求职者，为公司储备多样化的人才，那么他们就需要知道如何应对求职者的不同性格，并接受监督，以便发现潜在的偏见，并予以纠正。”