Saturday, May 31, 2008
Respone to Tiffany's Blog - Wk 3
Good question. I think it is just an attention grabber. It would certainly stand out in the self help section of the book store and I suspect people would be a least a bit more curious and pick it up to at least see what it's about, but I doubt anyone would prouly walk to the register with it. I doubt they selected this title witout some input from a focus group or advice from a marketing consultant. Focus groups are interesting if you ever get asked to participate in one. I have been in several and it was intersting to see how reactions to various advertising approaches vary. It was cool one year when a focus group i was in one winter selected a few ads for the jersey shore and I saw the smae pictures on a few billboards as we were headed to the shore. My point is that they probably didn't just selected a potentially offensive title without doing some research beforehand, no one takes a risk like that without being certain.
Response to John's Blog - Wk 3
I think it is fairly obvious why males athletics dominate the media, just look at the audience. I think males watch far more sports programming, buy far more sports magazines, read the sports section far more than females do. I am an avid sports fan. There are some female events I will watch such as tennis, soccer and golf. I will not watch the WNBA, I find it boring in comparison to the NBA, for me it is the equivalent of watching minor league baseball.There have been a few occasions where female golfers have been invited to play in a tournament on the male tour. In both instances the female golfers, who were among the best on the female tour (Anika Sorenstam, Michele Wie)didn't make the cut in the men's tournament. (Tounaments are usually four days, after the second day players not within 10 shots of the lead are cut). I am not trying to be controversial; I am just providing my perspective as a frequent viewer of sports. I was surfing SI.Com the other day and they had two headlines about the Indy 500. Primary headline was something like Indy 500 full of crashes, secondary was Danica (Patrick, a female driver) finishes 22nd. Do you think if John Doe finished 22nd there would be a headline? So it is evident that the media does make an effort to highlight the performance of women.
Week 3 - Gender observations K-8
My daughters received their school year book this week. The question that they asked each student was what they want to be when they grow up. What a perfect opportunity to look at a large population of students and see if there are any gender influences I thought. There are just over 200 students in the school which is from Kindergarten to eighth grade.
The first occupation I looked at was teacher. This is my daughters first year at this school and they are in kindergarten. One thing I noticed through the course of the year is that all of the teachers at the school are females, as is the entire staff. My hypothesis prior to counting was that there would be an overwhelmingly high percentage of females versus males that would want to be teachers simply based on the fact that all of the teachers are females. About 10% of the students answered teacher, 80% of them are females.
My suspicion is that this is a result of not having any male role models who are teachers. What would be interesting to see is how students at another school with a mixture of male and female teachers would respond. Only then would I be able to validate if my hypothesis is accurate.
The second group of occupations I looked at was professional athlete. The school offers athletic programs for boys and girls including basketball, soccer and track. All three are sports I felt get a fair amount of exposure for males and females as opposed to football and baseball. About 20% of students answered that they want to be professional athletes, 80% are males. My hypothesis was that this would be a bit more even based on the programs offered at the school. It is clear that the outside influences impact the students gender expectations more so than what they are exposed to at school.
The third grouping I looked at were doctors and lawyers (excluding veterinarian, far too many, if they all come through all of our pets will be well cared for). About 7% of all students answered doctor or lawyer, 66% are females. I thought we might get more of a 50-50 mix here. I suppose that this may be impacted by so many males having selected professional athlete as first choice. It would have been a bit more interesting if the students were instructed to select something other than professional athlete.
There are many more ways we could look at these results, far too many for this blog. There were quite a few that were better representations of reality than others. There where four specific ones I thought were interesting, two girls who identified an occupation and added mother, and two males who added dad.
The first occupation I looked at was teacher. This is my daughters first year at this school and they are in kindergarten. One thing I noticed through the course of the year is that all of the teachers at the school are females, as is the entire staff. My hypothesis prior to counting was that there would be an overwhelmingly high percentage of females versus males that would want to be teachers simply based on the fact that all of the teachers are females. About 10% of the students answered teacher, 80% of them are females.
My suspicion is that this is a result of not having any male role models who are teachers. What would be interesting to see is how students at another school with a mixture of male and female teachers would respond. Only then would I be able to validate if my hypothesis is accurate.
The second group of occupations I looked at was professional athlete. The school offers athletic programs for boys and girls including basketball, soccer and track. All three are sports I felt get a fair amount of exposure for males and females as opposed to football and baseball. About 20% of students answered that they want to be professional athletes, 80% are males. My hypothesis was that this would be a bit more even based on the programs offered at the school. It is clear that the outside influences impact the students gender expectations more so than what they are exposed to at school.
The third grouping I looked at were doctors and lawyers (excluding veterinarian, far too many, if they all come through all of our pets will be well cared for). About 7% of all students answered doctor or lawyer, 66% are females. I thought we might get more of a 50-50 mix here. I suppose that this may be impacted by so many males having selected professional athlete as first choice. It would have been a bit more interesting if the students were instructed to select something other than professional athlete.
There are many more ways we could look at these results, far too many for this blog. There were quite a few that were better representations of reality than others. There where four specific ones I thought were interesting, two girls who identified an occupation and added mother, and two males who added dad.
Friday, May 23, 2008
Reply to Linda's Blog - Wk 2
Linda, I thought this post was interesting, and good question at the end. I don't have any official sources but my opinion is that men would generally have a tougher time accepting that their son was gay, as oppossed to their daughter. I think attitudes about homosexuality are changing. In fact a few years ago when John Kerry kept talking about Dick Cheyney's daughter who is a lesbian I found it odd that Kerry would have even brought it up.I noticed a show the other day where a bisexual attress is doing a show like the Bachelor but she has men and women to choose from. I am wondering now if people are more accepting of a bisexual woman than of a bisexual man. I wonder if this is the start of a transitional phase where we will soon see a bachelor that is select from a pool of bachelors? Or a woman with just females to choose from?
I remember a kid from high school who sounded a lot like John. He got picked on frequently because most people assumed he was gay. At my last reunion he was married with 3 kids.
I remember a kid from high school who sounded a lot like John. He got picked on frequently because most people assumed he was gay. At my last reunion he was married with 3 kids.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
The Evolution of Negotiations - Week 2 post
As I was doing the readings this week, specifically feminine speech vs. masculine speech, I couldn’t help but reflect back on some of the negotiation trainings I have been through. There are 3 that stand out in my mind where I thought the principle messages could be classified as being consistent with either feminine speech or masculine speech. All of these courses were developed and delivered by some very credible authors, even though I do not remember them all I remember some of the more recent ones. I will take you through them chronologically and perhaps you will also see the same evolution I have.
The first course I took was called “Negotiate to Win”, which I took mid 90’s or so. You may not need much of an explanation from me on what type of speech this is based on the title. I still have the mug somewhere but the 10 key points have long since worn off. From what I remember though, some of the key thoughts were never give something without getting something in return, splitting the difference is never an acceptable compromise and withhold any information which may give your counterpart an advantage.
The second one I remember was called “Creating and Claiming value in Negotiations.” I took this in 2003. The key takeaway from this course was the further exploration of the term win-win in negotiations. So the objective at a high level was to reach preliminary agreement then identify opportunities to increase the overall value of the deal for both parties, but also to increase the value to you more so than your counterpart. Another key take away from this course was game theory, developing strategies to understand the rules and boundaries of negotiation so that you can become a game master. This course was developed and delivered by a professor from the Harvard School of Business.
The third course that stood out was called “High Performance Negotiation Skills” and I took this in 2006. The content of this course was developed and delivered by a Professor from the Kellogg School of Management. This course incorporated many of the concepts from the previous courses but added a layer of skills on top of them. Some of the key topics included building trust and relationships, navigating the tension between cooperation and competition and improving your creative thinking. (I still have the book, The Mind and Heart of the Negotiator, Leigh L. Thompson). What I learned from this is that if you express a genuine concern for understanding your counterpart’s point of view they will be more open to considering yours as well. That’s when you start building trust and moving from competitive to truly cooperative communications.
I utilize many of the techniques I have learned from all of these courses today. I find them to be equally effective regardless of gender. They are also equally effective in business and social situations.
Does anyone see the same evolution I did?
The first course I took was called “Negotiate to Win”, which I took mid 90’s or so. You may not need much of an explanation from me on what type of speech this is based on the title. I still have the mug somewhere but the 10 key points have long since worn off. From what I remember though, some of the key thoughts were never give something without getting something in return, splitting the difference is never an acceptable compromise and withhold any information which may give your counterpart an advantage.
The second one I remember was called “Creating and Claiming value in Negotiations.” I took this in 2003. The key takeaway from this course was the further exploration of the term win-win in negotiations. So the objective at a high level was to reach preliminary agreement then identify opportunities to increase the overall value of the deal for both parties, but also to increase the value to you more so than your counterpart. Another key take away from this course was game theory, developing strategies to understand the rules and boundaries of negotiation so that you can become a game master. This course was developed and delivered by a professor from the Harvard School of Business.
The third course that stood out was called “High Performance Negotiation Skills” and I took this in 2006. The content of this course was developed and delivered by a Professor from the Kellogg School of Management. This course incorporated many of the concepts from the previous courses but added a layer of skills on top of them. Some of the key topics included building trust and relationships, navigating the tension between cooperation and competition and improving your creative thinking. (I still have the book, The Mind and Heart of the Negotiator, Leigh L. Thompson). What I learned from this is that if you express a genuine concern for understanding your counterpart’s point of view they will be more open to considering yours as well. That’s when you start building trust and moving from competitive to truly cooperative communications.
I utilize many of the techniques I have learned from all of these courses today. I find them to be equally effective regardless of gender. They are also equally effective in business and social situations.
Does anyone see the same evolution I did?
Reply to Celita's Blog Week 2
Celita,I had a similar thought on a different car commercial. It said that the majority of women select a car based on the cupholders. I thought this was totally preposterous. Although convenience features may be one criteria I would tend to think that women are also concerned with the reputation, reliability and especially now gas mileage. Men on the other hand may have more of a tendency to dive into the details such as horsepower, engine size, etc. Of course I am making some stereotypical assumptions here but I thought the statement that women buy a car based on the number of cupholders was rather insulting.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
A woman held a door for me….and I walked through
One of my responsibilities at work is training incoming interns. We have approximately a dozen new interns that come in every six months. About two years ago I decided to include a segment on business etiquette and found a course in our company library called “Everyday Business Etiquette.” I did not review the content because it was a 3 hour course, instead I had two interns volunteer to take the course and present the key messages to the group.
I met with the interns beforehand to review their content. For the most part it was what I expected it to be. What I found most interesting was the section on chivalry in the work place. The message was that there is no such thing as chivalry in the workplace. For example holding the door, the rule is whoever gets to the door first holds it open for the other person. This is so different from the way I was raised. The first experience I had was that same afternoon when one of the female interns who was in the training class held the door open for me. This was not too awkward for me since we both had just been through the same training we both understood the proper etiquette. Since then there have been many occasions where a woman has held a door for me at the office. At the office I graciously accept however in public, I insist that the woman go before me.
I am curious to know how others treat this situation and what your expectations are at work and in public for door holding.
I met with the interns beforehand to review their content. For the most part it was what I expected it to be. What I found most interesting was the section on chivalry in the work place. The message was that there is no such thing as chivalry in the workplace. For example holding the door, the rule is whoever gets to the door first holds it open for the other person. This is so different from the way I was raised. The first experience I had was that same afternoon when one of the female interns who was in the training class held the door open for me. This was not too awkward for me since we both had just been through the same training we both understood the proper etiquette. Since then there have been many occasions where a woman has held a door for me at the office. At the office I graciously accept however in public, I insist that the woman go before me.
I am curious to know how others treat this situation and what your expectations are at work and in public for door holding.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
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