Some have suggested the style one chooses to adopt makes all the difference. Take, for example, Sallie Krawcheck. She is one of the most influential women on Wall Street and is renowned for a management style that draws on both gender roles. And one of the most successful women in Silicon Valley, Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg, endorses findings by Mary Sue Coleman that the women who get ahead are “relentlessly pleasant” and advises, for example, asking for pay raises with a smile.
But here’s another explanation based on a line of research into what is known as identity integration: Women who succeed in challenging careers have a personality trait by which they regard their two “selves”— their professional identity and their gender identity — not as in conflict but as fundamentally compatible.