Do Women Engage in Less Task Behavior than Men?

• Published in: Sociological perspectives 1999, Vol.42 (1), p.49-67
• Main Authors: Shelly, Robert K., Munroe, Paul T.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Behavior; Behaviorism; Gender; Gender differences; Gender discrimination; Gender roles; Group Decision Making; Group Dynamics; Group structure; Group Theory; Groups; Men; Opposite gender interaction; Prestige; Saliency; Sex Differences; Social behaviour; Social interaction; Social psychology; Sociological research; Sociology; Task Oriented Groups; Task Performance; Women
• ISSN: 0731-1214; 1533-8673
• DOI: 10.2307/1389641

The overwhelming evidence from data collected in mixed-gender groups is that men originate more behaviors related to solving the task confronting the group than do women. However, efforts to detect whether men and women interact differently in same-gender task groups have produced less consistent findings. Some studies report men originating more task behavior than women, but others report no such difference in task behaviors. We examine data from an experiment in which men and women participated in a decision-making task in two types of same gender groups. In type one, no initial differentiating structure was introduced into the group prior to interaction on the task. In type two, initial differentiating structures were introduced prior to the interaction on the task. We examine the effects that these differentiating structures have on the interaction patterns in these groups, as well as the effects that the gender of the subject has on these interaction processes. Experimental results show that in type one groups, similar power and prestige orders emerged in all-female and all-male groups and that there were no significant gender differences in the rates of task behaviors in these groups. In type two groups, initial differentiating structures organized power and prestige orders, and overall there were no significant differences in the rates of task behavior between all-female and all-male type two groups. Theoretical arguments from expectations states theory are presented to account for these findings. /// [Spanish] La evidencia abrumadora de información colectada en grupos de género mixto, refleja que los hombres más que las mujeres, originan un mayor comportamiento relacionado a la solución de la tarea de confrontación de grupo. Sin embargo, algunos esfuerzos para detectar como los hombres en contraste con las mujeres interactúan en forma diferente en las mismas tareas de grupo han demostrado resultados menos consistentes. Algunos estudios muestran que los hombres originan un mayor comportamiento que las mujeres, pero otros estudios muestran la inexistencia de dicha diferencia en el comportamiento. Examinamos la información de un experimento en el cual hombres y mujeres participaron en una tarea de toma de decisiones en dos tipos de los mismos grupos de género. En el tipo uno, no se introdujo ninguna estructura inicial diferencial en el grupo previamente a la interacción de la tarea. En el tipo dos, se introdujeron estructuras iniciales diferenciales p