B-E aggressive

when Clay Shirky posted his rant about women, it was pretty much derided and quickly dismissed. but it reminded me of something I notice a lot: women don’t write like men (PDF), business is conducted via email, and we lose.

granted, both my high school and college were overwhelmingly female, but I have never seen women hesitate to raise their hand in class. there are more women in college than men, but college is not the workplace, and the workplace is not a meritocracy. so we write stellar academic papers and do well on tests, but we don’t learn how to push our agenda. guess the gender of this email:

I’m sorry to bother you, but I hope you have a couple of minutes to read this. Would it be possible for you or your company to donate, OR perhaps pass it along to anyone else who might be able to? I really really want to make a difference, and I’d appreciate it so much. Perhaps you could forward the link to your clients, or post it on your website if it’s not too much trouble? Thank you very much for your time and I hope to hear from you soon.

I never get emails like this from dudes. and yeah, we can talk about the persistence of gender roles and the “bitch” issue, but that’s just talk. I can’t quite write w/the confidence of a man either, but at least I try.