New study shows women get punished for seeking raises

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The notion that business women don’t ask for a salary increase or high positions more often then their male counterparts has been proven untrue, according to a report from the Catalyst institute.

In fact, the study revealed that there was no major difference between the number of men and women who lobbied for a bump in pay or a higher job — the difference was that men were far more likely to be fully rewarded for their persistence.

But while men who asked for raises or promotions were more likely to get them than men who didn’t, perversely women who asked for similar considerations were less likely to receive them than women who never spoke up.

Catalyst’s Nancy Carter and Christine Silva authored the report “The Myth of the Ideal Worker,” which researched MBA graduates from the top schools around the world.

“Our findings run counter to media coverage of the so-called phenomenon that ‘women don’t ask,’” they said . “Instead the problem may be, as some other research has shown, that people routinely take a tougher stance against women in negotiations than they take against men.”