This article examines the widespread expectation that women should help more in the workplace, while there is no such expectation for men. For example, women generally do most of the “office housework” – administrative tasks that help but don’t pay off.

When a woman declines to help a colleague, people like her less and her career suffers. But when a man says no, he faces no backlash. A man who doesn’t help is “busy”; a woman is “selfish.”