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Why Men Outnumber Women in Business School

And now for the provocative…

There are many reasons why men outnumber women by a 2:1 ratio in business schools. You could rattle off a lack of role models, cultural bias, income disparity, weaker networks, and even biological clocks and poor golf swings. This week, a new reason is tossed into a mix: Women have higher ethics than men.

That’s the contention of Shankar Vedantam, NPR’s social science correspondent. In an interview with host David Greene, Vedantam touts the work of Haas’ Laura Kray. In her research, Kray determined that men have a higher tendency to take shortcuts and deceive others in business settings. Vedantam summarizes Kray’s findings in this way:

“They are saying at in every step of the process, right from business school on to the actual corporate world, women are confronting a triple hurdle. The first hurdle is that men are more willing to accept jobs that involve ethical compromise. Men seem to be less plagued by ethical doubt. And women are not only plagued by ethical doubt, they’re actually targeted for deception.”

Here’s why: In her classes, Kray noticed that men and women approached ethical dilemmas differently. For example, during a real estate negotiation scenario, men were more likely to lie to achieve their ends, particularly to a female counterpart. Conversely, women tended to “be upfront and tell the truth” in Vedantam’s words.

Vedantam cited another study that Kray held with colleague Michael Haselhuhn, where men were more likely to engage in situational ethics:

“…when an ethical decision affects them negatively, they’re likely to perceive the situation as being unethical. But when the situation benefits them, they’re likely to say: Well, it’s a gray area – it’s not such a big deal.”

In addition, Vedantam referred to a third Kray study with Jessica Kennedy of Wharton, where participants were told that a less expensive – and potentially harmful ingredient – was included in a product. Here’s how Kray describes the participants’ reactions:

“Women experienced these moral emotions more so than men did. They found it outrageous to go with the cheaper ingredient that’s going to cause harm to people when it could have been avoided.”

Mind you, Vedantam didn’t cite specific stats (and Greene was too timid to challenge his assertions). What’s more, ethics are often a chicken-or-the-egg argument: Are less ethical students attracted to business or does studying a discipline give them more (ahem) ‘elastic ethics.’

Still, Kray did make some striking observations last year in The Daily Beast about why men and women differ when it comes to ethics:

“The masculine nature of negotiations…means that masculinity is on the line in a way that femininity is not. Even with all things being equal, in a gender-neutral task, we know that masculinity is more fragile than femininity. So when men are in a domain where they are concerned about proving their masculinity, it leads them to engage in negotiation tactics that are more ethically lenient.”

“Scholars are finding that morality and ethics are driven by one’s ability to experience empathy and compassion, not some cost-benefit analysis. We know women are more emotional and experience these emotions more intensely than men. When you combine that with the fact that men are concerned about their masculinity being on the line, it becomes a toxic equation for ethics.”

What are your thoughts? Are men more ethically ‘flexible’ than women?

Note: Kray’s research is available (for a price) here.

Source: NPR, The Daily Beast