Even Having A Hobby Is Better If You’re A Man

Here at IMAGE, we pride ourselves on our positivity, on seeing the light in times?of darkness (i.e., all of 2016) and our glass-is-half-full approach. But every so often, we stumble upon something so enraging, that we simply have to say, WTF?!

Society typically favours the man; he gets paid more, shunned less despite the fact that, we as females are superwomen. We work just as hard (if not more), bear children, shatter glass ceilings and even after all that, we’re told that now, even having a decent, interesting hobby will benefit you in your descent?up the career?ladder – but only if you’re a man, obviously.

Yep,?according to the Science of Us, if you have what they term a “high-class hobby” listed on your CV – an interest in classical music, etc. – males will get a call back for a high-paying position almost 20% more times than females. ?This is a new study in the American Sociological Review lead-authored by Lauren Rivera, an assistant professor at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management. To come to this conclusion,?Rivera sent out job applications to 316 elite law offices across the U.S. Each office received one application (more or less the same)?randomly assigned to gender.

Higher class and lower class were represented with a bundle of different signals: last name (?Cabot? versus ?Clark?); undergraduate extracurriculars (?Peer mentor for first-year students? vs ?Peer mentor for first-generation college students?; and personal interests (‘sailing, polo, classical music? vs ?track and field, pick-up-soccer, country music?).

Ultimately, in terms of callbacks, the higher-class got ?woman three, and the higher-class man thirteen. That means the blue-blooded James had a 16.25 callback rate, while his nearly identical siblings had a paltry 3.83 callback percentage. We say again: WTF?!

Coming from a higher-class background only helps men,? Rivera tells Science of Us. ?Given my prior research, we thought that social class background would lift all those people regardless of gender, and that was not the case.?

Her advice if you do want to break into a patriarchal and lucrative profession was not to not give too much away regarding extra activities on the CV, but even that’s an irritant, would you ask the same of a man?

But never mind, you can take the higher ground: Let your?kick-ass credentials speak for themselves and hobby or not, you’ll smash it in your career.