One common theory to explain the pay gap between men and women assigns blame to women themselves: Maybe they just aren’t asking for raises.

But a study of Australian women has found that they were asking for salary increases as much as their male colleagues — men were just more likely to actually get one.

The study, released this week by the Cass Business School in London, the University of Warwick and the University of Wisconsin - Oshkosh found that when comparing men and women who work similar hours, men got a raise 20 percent of the time they asked, compared with 16 percent for women. About 70 percent of men and women in the sample said they had asked for a raise.

Though the study did not offer solutions, Dr. Amanda Goodall, one of the study’s authors, said in an interview that it did narrow the possible explanations for the disparities.