Arbitration & Mediation

Ask for It: How Women Can Use the Power of Negotiation to Get What They Really Want

By Victoria Pynchon

I didn't realize until I got onto the plane out of Seattle that Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever -- our morning plenary session speakers (Women Don't Ask:  Negotiation and the Gender Divide) -- have written a new book -- Ask for It -- How Women Can Use the Power of Negotiation to Get What They Really Want.

(Listen to their WNYC interview here)

Here are the statistics from Women Don't Ask that should make every woman who reads this blog sharpen her negotiation skills by picking up Ask for It today.

• Women report salary expectations up to 24% lower than men for the same jobs
• Women will pay over $1,000 more to avoid negotiating the price of a car.
• 20% of adult women (22 million people) say they never negotiate at all.
• 2.5 times more women than men say they fear negotiation.

As the handout from Bantam Books on Women Don't Ask reports:

By neglecting to negotiate her starting salary for her first job, a woman may sacrifice over half a million dollars in earnings by the end of her career.  Yet, as research reveals, men are four times more likely than women with the same qualifications to ask for higher pay.  From career promotions to help with child care, studies show time and again that women don't ask -- and frequently don't even realize they can.

So let's equip ourselves for the 21st century friends because Harvard studies have also shown that women negotiate every bit as well as men when they're negotiating for someone else.  This means bringing a negotiation partner with you or simply pretending that you're negotiating for a friend when asking for what you deserve yourself!

Full post as published by Settle It Now Negotiation Blog on April 05, 2008 (boomark / email).