Study Men see brunette women as better leaders than blondes

Study Men landsee brunette women as better leaders than blondesStudy Men see brunette women as better leaders than blondesMen already judge women leaders for being too aggressively ambitiousand too nepotisticin their goals. And according tonew research, we now know that for men, hair color can make all the difference for how they judge female leaders.Brunettes are perceived as more competentIn threestudies, University of British Columbia researchers Dr. Jennifer Berdahl and Dr. Natalya Alonso surveyed some100 men to see how they felt about women CEOs who were blonde and brunette. Although men rated blondes and brunettes the saatkorn in attractiveness, in the important quality of leadership, brunettes were seen as superior.When men were shown the same woman with different-colored hair, they thought that the blonde version of the woman was less competent and independent.The irony Women who are blonde are overrepresented in corporate leadership compared to women with dark hair - and ev en men with light hair. Although only about 2% of male Fortune 500 CEOs areblonde, 48% of female CEOs at SP 500 companies and 35% of U.S. female senators were blonde, the researchers found.The majority of men thought that brunettes would make a better CEO or senator than the blondes. The fact that participantswere being shown the same person, just with different-colored hair, shows how subjective these criticismscan be.The blonde Glinda-the-Good-Witch effectBut that doesnt mean brunettes werent getting negatively judged, too. When men were asked to look at the same women leaders and judge them based on their dominant leadership styles, they universally penalized brunettes for actually leading teams. In that situation, blondes came out ahead.When men heardthe firm, decisive words of my staff knows who the boss is from a brunette, men rated her as less attractive and warm. But when a blonde was shown to say the same thing, she was perceivedas warm and attractive in whatBerdahl called the Glinda-the-Good-Witch effect.Our data suggest that blonde women are not only assumed to be younger than their darker haired counterparts, but are also judged to be less independent-minded and less willing take a stand than other women and than men,Berdahl wrote.Barbie can be CEO as long as she is young and/or docile.In other words, the blonde advantage is that you can get away with more aggression than your brunette counterparts because men in power will incorrectly see them as more docile, gentle, and less independent-minded.It shows the double bind that many women face from both men and women, however You can be either seen as competent or likable, but you only get to be one.But you shouldnt take this research as reason to bring out the hair dye. SociologistKjerstin Gruys critiqued one journalists analysis that this research means woman who want to be leaders should dye their hair blonde as short-sighted.Gruys responded that dyeing hair blonde doesnt take into account the hair ofwomen of color - and that changing ones haircolor doesnt do much to change how women, as a whole, are paid or promoted or treated at work.Whether youre blonde or brunette, this research shows that for women, you will be judged on your looks.

5 Ways to Stop Wasting Time at Work

5 Ways to Stop Wasting Time at Work5 Ways to Stop Wasting Time at Work We all have days, or even weeks, on the job when our productivity declines. But if your output has been steadily diminishing, it could be because youre wasting time rather than focusing on key tasks at hand. If thats the case, the sooner you curb that behavior, the less likely itll be to compromise your job. Here are a few steps you can take to stop wasting time at work - and start doing your job more efficiently.Its easy to get distracted at the office when youre surrounded by chatty colleagues and side conversations that are far more interesting than the work youre supposed to be doing. But if you let yourself get sucked into those discussions, youre likely to fall behind and incur your bosss wrath as a result. If you cant tear yourself away from the folks around you long enough to stop wasting time, remove the temptation by regularly setting up shop in a quieter spot in the office, like the cor ner conference room most folks forget about. You might even ask your manager for permission to use his or her office if your boss doesnt use it all that much.A quick text message here and there during the workday might seem innocent enough, but a brief back-and-forth can quickly turn into a full-fledged conversation - one that takes you away from more important tasks. If youre eager to stop wasting time at the office, silence your cellphone. Give family members and close friends a way to reach you in an emergency (such as by calling your offices landline), and turn on that phone only during designated breaks.Its easy to inadvertently waste time when you dont have a preset schedule outlining your days at work. But if youre guilty of not maximizing your time at the office, itll help to create a daily calendar with blocks of time for various tasks . For example, if you give yourself from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. to write up your weekly data analysis report, youll be less likely to waste time during that period knowing that you only have an hour allocated to that task.A messy workspace can make you downright inefficient even when youre trying to do better. If your desk is full of clutter, carve out some time to get it organized. Shred papers you dont need, file essential documents in some sort of order and make your supplies more accessible. The less time you spend navigating the disaster zone that is your workspace, the more time youll free up to actually do your job.Sometimes we waste time at work by talking to colleagues, checking text messages or surfing the internet because our minds need a break from the constant grind. If that sounds like you, then youre better off scheduling some breaks during the day but powering through otherwise. For example, you might carve out 20 minutes in the morning or afternoon to chat with coworkers or look at your favorite websites. This way, youll get that need out of your system so you can then go back to concentrating.The more ti me you waste at work, the more your manager and peers are apt to take notice - and thats a good way to hurt your reputation and put your job at risk. Instead, clean up your act and keep searching for ways to be more efficient. Doing so might also spare you the misery of having to burn the midnight oil when deadlines loom and your work just hasnt gotten done.This article was originally published on The Motley Fool . It is reprinted with permission.

U.S. Can Learn From Texas Surge in Wind and Solar Power

U.S. Can Learn From Texas Surge in Wind and Solar Power U.S. Can Learn From Texas Surge in Wind and Solar Power U.S. Can Learn From Texas Surge in Wind and Solar PowerIf you believe the stereotypes, then either you have a robust energy industry or you take sufficient action to stave off climate change. But you cant do both. There is no middle ground.Texas is a place where the conflict between the energy industry and climate change is sharply drawn. On the one hand, the states political leadership and much of its business establishment are ambivalent at best about the urgency to take action on the climate crisis. On the other, Hurricane Harvey caused mora than $100 billion of damage, much of it borne by the energy sector.But Texas isnt just oilmen, and even oilmen wont ignore opportunity when it appears. I believe the state can offer some useful insights about how the U.S. and the world can move forward.The Brazos Wind Farm near Fluvanna, Texas. Image Leaflet / Wikimedia CommonsListen to the New ASME TechCast Renewable Energy Experts Shine Light on Solar Farms and GridsIn an era when carbon emissions didnt matter, the Texas energy sector served as the engine of the landal economy, getting rich selling hydrocarbons while encouraging our emissions of carbon dioxide. Simplistic thinking concludes that if we got rich taking carbon out of the ground and putting it into the atmosphere, then surely reducing carbon emissions will make us poor.But that is wrong.Looking ahead to an era where carbon power emissions do matter, Texas is poised to remain the capital of energy. West Texas, for instance, is among the most intensive energy hot spots in the world. The boom in oil and gas production in the Permian Basin there has led to a surge in investment Permania, its called. If Texas were an independent country, it would be the second-largest gas producer in the world, after Russia.But the sunbaked, windswept landscape of West Texas also explains why the region is experiencin g a simultaneous surge in wind and solar power investment. With nearly 25 GW of installed nameplate capacity, Texas is by far the top state for installed wind power capacity. Just as a quarter of U.S. petroleum refining capacity is in Texas, a quarter of the nations wind power is in Texas.Top Story 5 Ways How Digital Farm Technology Is Transforming Agriculture Texas didnt get its wind boom by accident. A state law passed in 1999 called for competition in the wholesale power market and a modest mandate to build renewable capacity. Deregulation caused a short-term spike in gas prices, but that invited competition from renewables, which became popular not only with Austin hippies but also corporate customers like Dell Computers, which placed orders for large batches of affordably priced green power to reduce costs and improve its sustainability profile. New electric transmission lines were put up, and wind turbines were built at such a rapid clip that there was a glut of wind power.As the world chooses a path of decarbonization, the states vast expanses of cheap, flat, sunny, windy land and extensive reserves of natural gas trapped in shales means it can sell the low-carbon energy global consumers desire whether thats gas or wind or solar.Even if officials in Washington make a great show of not caring about climate change, much of the world does care.Unexpectedly for many observers, Texas oil and gas companies also care. They and other oil and gas companies like them have issued public statements affirming support for the Paris Climate Agreement (pledges adopted in December 2015 by practically every nation in the world to dramatically cut greenhouse gas emissions), hoping to sell the natural gas that will enable those reductions by displacing dirtier coal.If Texas got rich when pollution didnt matter, the thinking goes, it will get even richer when it does matter.Our national political leaders have framed the energy dialogue as a battle between conservatives and liberals, Republicans and Democratseven capitalists and communists. But the example offered by Texas-borne shale and wind booms makes clear that those battle lines are contrived. When Texans work together, we get great solutions. If we invest in our infrastructure, we enable affordable energy production. If we build our markets sensibly, we get the cleanest, cheapest, most reliable forms of energy.As Texas goes, so can the nation. But its not clear thats a lesson Washington, D.C., is ready to learn.Michael E. Webber is the Josey Centennial Professor of Energy Resources at the University of Texas in Austin and Chief Science and Technology Officer at ENGIE, a global energy company headquartered in Paris. His latest book, Power Trip The Story of Energy, will be published in May by Basic Books.mora Exclusive Content from ASME.orgManufacturing Takes FlightThe Critical Need for 5G Cellular ServiceHow Engineers Can Resolve Conflict and Save Their BusinessWith nearly 25 GW of installed name plate capacity, Texas is by far the top state for installed wind power capacity. Michael Webber, University of Texas