老板太太决定女性的职业前途

    假设你是女性，尽管和男同事条件相当，甚至更为优秀，你还是屡屡错过升职的机会，这让你疑惑不解。那么你很可能没有考虑这个因素：如果你的老板是位已婚男士，他的太太是做什么的？相比于职业女性，家庭主妇的配偶在工作上会更加看轻女性的竞争力。

    别不相信，经过历时6年对美国和英国1200名男士的调查，管理学教授斯瑞达莉•德赛的研究小组得出了这一结论。德赛同时在北卡罗来纳大学（University of North Carolina）的凯南-弗拉格勒（Kenan-Flagler）商学院和哈佛大学担任教职，在她看来，妻子是家庭主妇的男性经理是“职场性别革命的最后障碍。”

    她说，在5个单独的研究计划中，“我们发现：相对于（男女平等的）现代婚姻，在（男主外女主内的）传统婚姻中，职业男性更容易敌视女同事，也更经常地阻止女员工升职。”

    为何如此？主要原因是每个人的“家庭环境都会影响到我们在职场的行为。”该研究注意到，“人们每天都在工作和家庭之间‘来回穿梭’，”想在办公室将家庭生活完全抛在脑后，需要有意识的努力。

    “我们研究的男士都彬彬有礼，他们坚信自己能够平等看待女同事。他们并非故意压制女性。”德赛指出，“然而，在大多数情况下，他们的决定来自于潜意识的偏见，他们对此一无所知。”

    在一项实验中，232名已婚男性经理被要求评估两位参与竞争的MBA候选人，其中一位将获得在读期间的全额薪水和学费报销，毕业后将升职为副总裁。这两个（虚构的）候选人在各方面旗鼓相当，都有着“出类拔萃的经历和备受赞誉的领导能力”。

    唯一的区别：一位叫戴维•布雷克（David Blake，英文男姓名称），另一位名为黛安（Diane，英文女性名称）。来自传统婚姻的男士压倒性地支持戴维。与此形成鲜明对比的是，职业女性的丈夫们对两者基本上是不偏不倚。

    对于渴望跻身公司高层的女性来说，不幸的是，该研究发现，“来自传统婚姻”的男性经理不但数量众多（根据美国劳工统计局的数据，在美国约1100万），并且有权有势：“这类男性[比女性和其他男性]更有可能高居组织的顶层…也挣得更多，这进一步说明了他们的影响力。”

    此外，德赛还怀疑，对多数公司提供的性别多样性培训（如果有的话），这些老板都会听而不闻。“如果你试图讨论潜意识的观念如何影响决定，别指望会有什么结果，因为没人相信这回事，”德赛注意到，“每个人都会说‘肯定有人潜意识里会[在条件相当时倾向于男性]。但那不是我。’”

    如果多样性培训师希望解决这个问题，德赛建议用内隐联想测验（Implicit Association Test）来揭露人们隐藏的观念。“这个测试让很多人大吃一惊，”她说：“别要求公布分数。目的不是让人难堪或是采取守势，而是当作一面镜子，让人看到自己隐藏在内心的想法。”

    当然，让所有1100万男性经理都坐下来参加这个测试是不太可能的，更不用说要他们学以致用了。所以，女性要想获得公平的升职机会，请接受这个建议：在你所能选择的范围之内，如果老板是已婚男性，记得先挑他的太太，职业女性最好。

    Let's suppose you're female and puzzled by why you keep getting passed over for promotion -- despite having qualifications equal to, or maybe even better than, your male peers'. Here's a factor you probably haven't considered: If your boss is a married man, what does his wife do for a living? If she's a stay-at-home spouse, he is less likely to see you as a serious contender in the workplace than if she has a career of her own outside the home.

    At least, that is the conclusion of a study, based on six years of research covering 1,200 men in the U.S. and Britain, led by management professor Sreedhari Desai. Male managers whose wives are homemakers are "a pocket of resistance to the gender revolution in the workplace," says Desai, who teaches at the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina and at Harvard.

    In five separate research projects, she says, "We found that employed husbands in traditional marriages, compared to those in modern marriages, tend to view the presence of women at work unfavorably -- and, more frequently, to deny qualified female employees opportunities for promotion."

    Why is that? A big part of the reason is that everyone's "home environments can shape the way we behave at work," the study notes. "People are daily 'border crossers' between the domains of work and family," and leaving one's home life entirely behind at the office door requires a conscious effort.

    "The men we studied were all nice guys who really believe that they are capable of seeing female colleagues as equals. They were not deliberately holding women back," Desai points out. "Rather, in the vast majority of cases, they were basing their decisions on unconscious biases they didn't realize they had."

    In one experiment, 232 married male managers were asked to evaluate two competing MBA candidates and told that one of the two would receive a full salary and tuition reimbursement during B-school and a promotion to vice president afterward. The two (fictional) candidates were identical in every way, with "exemplary experience and award-winning leadership capabilities," the study says.

    The only difference: One was named David Blake, and the other's first name was Diane. Men in traditional marriages overwhelmingly chose David. By contrast, the responses of the managers married to women with careers of their own were split almost equally between the two.

    Unfortunately for women who aspire to corporate heights, the study notes, male managers "embedded in traditional marriages" are a large group (about 11 million in the U.S., according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics), and a powerful one: "These men are more likely [than both women and other men] to populate the upper echelons of organizations … [and] to earn more, another indicator of their influence."

    Moreover, Desai suspects that the kind of diversity training most companies do (if they do any at all) is likely to fall on deaf ears with these bosses. "If you try to have a discussion about how people's unconscious beliefs shape their decisions, it's very difficult to get anywhere, because no one believes it," observes Desai. "Everyone will say, 'I'm sure some people do have unconscious attitudes [that favor men over women who are equally qualified]. But not me.'"

    For diversity trainers hoping to get around that, Desai suggests asking people to take a quiz called the Implicit Association Test, which is designed to bring buried beliefs out into the open. "This test is a revelation to many people who take it," she says. "And you don't need to ask anyone to reveal their score. The object isn't to embarrass anyone or put anyone on the defensive, but rather to hold up a mirror so that people become aware of what may be hidden in their own psyches."

    Of course, it's unlikely that 11 million married male executives are all going to sit down and take this test, let alone start acting on whatever they learn from it. So, for women who want a fair shot at advancement, a word of advice: To the extent that you can choose whom to work for, if you are going to work for a married man, go with one who has a career-minded spouse.