(Disclaimer: this post will no doubt incur the disapproval of all manner of people & political views, from feminist to traditionalist– please send all rotten tomatoes are to be sent to our office address. We need the compost.)
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Women are notoriously and tragically bad at “tooting their own horn.” Men, on the other hand, are not just unafraid of self promotion–they often brag about how well they do so! And the effects are drastic–I’ve even heard women executives admit they give higher raises, bonuses, and promotions to men rather than women simply “because the men asked for it”.

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Not only do women have an evolutionary inbred tendency to nurture others, even at the expense of their own needs–to make matters worse, we’ve traditionally been taught to be “good girls,” including cheering for others rather than for ourselves (When is the last time you saw a male cheerleader?) Another factor could be our well-documented tendency to lower self-confidence and lower self-esteem, and thus a tendency to ask for less in just about everything– promotions, raises, interesting projects, etc.

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Men, on the other hand, have a nearly obsessive search for recognition is hard-wired into their brains. Why? Because recognition is one of the contributing factors to social status which, in evolutionary terms, determined who got the lion’s share of the food–and females. In essence, recognition had a direct link to both survival and reproduction– not matters to take lightly. Today, recognition is still one of the factors leading to promotions, better assignements, and career advancement.

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So what if a natural comfort with self-promotion wasn’t pre-programmed in your basic software package? There are several excellent books on the subject, but the one I particularly recommend– and the one to which, in many ways, I owe my career– is Kate White’s “Why good girls don’t get ahead, but gutsy girls do.” The title says it all…