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Study: Women with 'Male' names are more successful

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-11-03 09:31

What's in a name? A lot if you're seeking a legal career, with a US study finding that women with male names are more successful lawyers and judges than those with more traditional, feminine names.

The study, led by economist Bentley Coffey of Clemson University in South Carolina, looked at the relationship between a person's success in the legal profession, and their ultimately becoming a judge, and how masculine their name is. The study found by hypothesizing and using a series of equations that a female "Cameron" is about three times more likely to become a judge than a "Sue", while a female "Bruce" is five times more likely.

Coffey and his team used data from the voting population of South Carolina state to test the so-called "Portia Hypothesis".