Law Department Management Blog
“Research suggests that men are more likely to prefer centralization and inequality than women; studies of social dominance orientation, for example, report that men endorse social inequality more than women. Men tend to support policies that favor social hierarchy, whereas women favor social equality and communality. Further, men tend to favor equity norms, which reward individuals for their contributions to a group, and women tend to favor equality norms, which emphasize equal outcomes for group members regardless of their contributions. Equity norms tolerate and often facilitate inequality and social hierarchy, whereas equality norms do not.”
This quote, from The Best of Rotman Magazine, Vol. 2, at 104, predicts that male general counsel tend to impose their will on their department (“I am the alpha lawyer!”), whereas women work more together with members of their department (“Let’s join together as a team.”). Moreover, men might favor setting a higher proportion of bonuses based on an individual’s contribution; while women might favor giving more importance to the department’s collective contribution (See my post of Dec. 31, 2006 about the imperial general counsel.).