Sources In Conversation Script

Me: Welcome to the Ryan Kendall News Show. Today we will be discussing gender differences in decision-making. Our first guest today will be Eleanor Roosevelt, the First Lady during the Great Depression. Next, we have Maureen Flanagan, a professor of history at Michigan State University. Our next guest will be Ling-Ling Chang, a professor at the National Chiao Tung University in Taiwan. Last but certainly not least, 0ur final guest will be Kathleen Arano, an assistant professor of economics at Fort Hays State University. These guests will help to discuss our topic and provide a stronger understanding of what forces are at work when men and women make decisions. How are you all doing today?

All: Fine, thank you.

Me: Wonderful. Let us begin this discussion with the aspect of natural instinct. Eleanor, could you elaborate a bit on the impact of this factor on decision-making in the different genders?

Eleanor Roosevelt: Of course, Ryan. Thank you. Well what I have seen within the political arena, women tend to be more associated with the welfare of the people. This is “undoubtedly tied up with women’s biological functions. The women bear the children, and love them even before they come into the world” (Roosevelt, 106). “Women have caused a basic change in the attitude of government toward human beings” meaning “there are certain fundamental things that mean more to the great majority of women than to the great majority of men” (Roosevelt, 106).

Me: And what evidence do you have of this?

Eleanor Roosevelt: Following the granting of suffrage to women, the government took “increasing cognizance of humanitarian questions, things that deal with the happiness of human beings, such as health, education, security. There is nothing, of course, to prove that this is entirely because of the women’s interest, and yet I think it is significant that this change has come about during the period when women have been exercising their franchise. It makes me surmise that women who do take an interest in public questions have thrust these interests to the fore, and obliged their fellow citizens to consider them. Whereas in the past these problems have remained more or less in the background, today they are discussed by every governing body” (Roosevelt, 104). This I find to be more than just coincidence. It is quite apparent that these two factors are related.

Me: Interesting. And what may you say for the men?

Eleanor Roosevelt: Men tend to base their decisions upon pride. “Now and then you will find a man whose paternal instinct is very strong—even stronger than his wife’s maternal instinct. These are the exceptions which prove the rule however. The pride most men feel in the little new bundle of humanity must grow gradually into love and devotion. I will not deny that this love develops fast with everything a man does for the new small and helpless human being which belongs to him; but a man can nearly always be more objective about his children than a woman can be” (Roosevelt, 106).

Me: Can anyone else elaborate on this division of our topic?

Maureen Flanagan: Why, yes. I can, in fact, expand on what Eleanor has stated. “It is commonly accepted that male and female reformers in the first two decades of the twentieth century had different agendas for reform; that these differences stemmed primarily from gender concerns is also assumed” (Flanagan, 196). “Such issues as how to collect and dispose of municipal garbage and waste, how to restructure and run the system of public education, and how, and to what ends, to regulate the use of police power within the city were controversial, and no consensus existed among the citizenry about the appropriate solutions. Because of their different relationships to the urban power structure, to daily life within the city, and to other individuals, when the members of the Women’s City Club confronted these problems, they came to a vision of a good city and specific proposals of how best to provide for the welfare of its residents that were very different from those of their male counterparts in the City Club” (Flanagan, 197). When it came to the dilemma of how to collect and dispose of garbage, the women “favored both municipal control over and incineration of garbage on the grounds that they would maximize the healthiness of the urban environment” (Flanagan, 201). They “told the men of the City Club that it was wrong to think of garbage removal as a business rather than a question of health and sanitation” (Flanagan, 201-202) as they had, in fact, been approaching the situation.

Me: That is quite intriguing. I’m glad you brought that up as it provides our viewers with a better understanding as to how gender really affects how one approaches an issue. Now that we’ve addressed the origination of decisions, lets discuss how gender affects the way one asserts their decision. I’d like for Kathleen Arano to expand on this for us.

Kathleen Arano: Of course. Through research over gender-based differences regarding economics such as retirement assess allocation, “our estimates imply that women faculty are more risk aversive than their male spouse” (Arano, 147). “Women tend to have less work experience than men” (Arano, 147) leading to a shrinking confidence in the decisions they make. This has been attributed to them as the stereotypical roles of men and women. Men are the provider and women tend to their household duties. Therefore, the workplace is generally more foreign to women than men leading to a sense of uncertainty.

Chang: From my own personal studies, which refers to this topic in an economical viewpoint, I have learned that “social mood is one factor that affects people’s emotions and their perspectives in risk management, which, in turn, influence their final decisions on actual investments. It is believed that women, in general, are more risk aversive, more pessimistic, and have less investment confidence than men” (Chang, 61). It is commonly known that women’s emotions provide a stronger influence upon their own person compared to men which directly ties the logic in these findings. It is “found that gender difference in attitude towards risk is caused by emotional fluctuation, and emotional fluctuation is affected, among other influences, by the state of the economy, unemployment rate, and inflation, which can further affect individuals’ decisions on investments” (Chang, 62). Women also, generally speaking, of course, “prefer to hold a more conservative portfolio” (Chang, 62). “When it comes to decision making, women tend to take more factors into consideration than men do before taking any action” (Chang, 62). “On the other hand, when the predicted decision outcome is positive, there is a greater possibility for women to underestimate upcoming opportunities. Voelz (1985) believed that an individual’s risk attitude was affected by his/her social role; men are more confident than women in risk evaluation and decision making, and are sometimes overconfident. Lenney (1977) pointed out that confidence levels in men and women depend on how individuals think after making a decision. If the certainty level is low and the outcome is vague, women will tend to underestimate their own capabilities” (Chang, 62).

Me: And you believe that this is tied with the stereotypical social roles of the male and female?

Chang: Yes, I do. “Women react more intensely when feeling threatened or frightened; when emotions are heightened by social pressure, attitude about and actions associated with risky decisions are more conservative than those of men in similar situations” (Chang, 63). This reinforces the female stereotype of being weaker in some sense and the male figure is attributed a more dominant and stereotypical masculinity.

Me: That’s very helpful to our topic. Thank you. Well that is all the time we have for today. Thank you to our guests for assisting us in our discussion. Have a good night!