`Men with women family members are more generous`

A study shows that men with siblings and daughters more often participate in charity activities and are more generous to employees than those without women family members. Adam Grant, a professor at the MBA-specialized Wharton School, said in his column titled “Why Do Men Need Women” in the New York Times that rich men active in charity activities and CEOs generous to employees are greatly influenced by female family members.

A case in point is Bill Gates, board chairman of Microsoft. Even two decades ago, Gates flatly refused to be involved in charity activities. But his attitude toward charity began to change as he married and had a daughter, and he eventually established Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 1997.

Three professors, including David Ross at Columbia University in New York, studied changes in wages for 10 years of Denmark companies with more than 10,000 employees. Study results show that CEOs with sons proved to have cut down wages while those with daughters have not. Professor Grant said, “Fathers apparently tend to grow tender and sympathize with others as they comb their daughters’ hair and go to dance class with them.” Professor Ross pointed out lawmakers having daughters tend to approve liberal bills, which is in line with the study result.

Paul van Lange, a psychology professor at Free University Amsterdam, reported an interesting result of a survey of 600 people. They were asked to choose between “You get 25 dollars and your parents get 10 dollars” (selfish) and “You get 20 dollars and your parents get 30 dollars” (altruistic). Men with female siblings chose the latter, 40 percent more than those without female siblings.

Social scientists believe women’s ability to sympathize with others and raise children affects male family members. Women are eager to help others and have strong sense of fairness, which makes them to share things evenly with others while men tend to make extreme choices such as taking it all or none.

There is a survey on female influence at work. Two U.S. professors studied U.S. companies from 1992 to 2006 and found out that companies having female executives created an average 1 percent more of economic value than those without. They said female leadership who are more generous to employees and promotes information sharing exerts positive influence on business performance.