Women Don't Ask
by Sara Laschever, Linda Babcock · first published 2003
25% recommend67% neutral8% critical
By looking at the barriers holding women back and the social forces constraining them, Women don't ask shows women how to reframe their interactions and more accurately evaluate their opportunities. It teaches them how to ask for what they want in ways that feel comfortable and possible, taking into account the impact of asking on their relationships. And it teaches all of us how to recognize the ways in which our institutions, child-rearing practices, and unspoken assumptions perpetuate inequalities--inequalities that are not only fundamentally unfair but also inefficient and economically uns
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Check out "Ask For It: How Women Can Use the Power of Negotiation to Get What They Really Want", by Linda Babcock and Sarah Laschever. Their earlier book "Women Don't Ask" is well worth reading too.
on “I regularly hire women for 65% to 75% of what males make” ↗Women Don't Ask by Linda Babcock is well worth reading if you're interested in this sort of thing. One particularly striking result was that MBA graduates differences in pay between men and women was around $4,000 in…
on “Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders?” ↗Yes, there's a whole book about this, Women Don't Ask: The High Cost of Avoiding Negotiation. https://www.amazon.com/Women-Dont-Ask-Negotiation-Strategies... > Yet, as research reveals, men are four times more likely to ask for higher pay than are women…
on “New York City bans employers from asking potential workers about past salary” ↗…all the men asked for more money, yet none of the women did. So the offers the company made were "fair", but the end results were very skewed wages. There are entire books about this subject, such as "Women Don't Ask: The High Cost of Avoiding Negotiation"[1] Companies could fix this overnight by disallowing negotiation (Didn't Fog Creek do this?), or making all employees salaries transparent (countries like Norway…
on “There is no gender gap in tech salaries” ↗This phenomenon was studied in a book called Women Don't Ask. http://www.womendontask.com/ 'When Linda Babcock asked why so many male graduate students were teaching their own courses and most female students were assigned as assistants, her dean said: "More…
on “I regularly hire women for 65% to 75% of what males make” ↗…seen as less of a cultural negative. It's something explicitly expected of one gender and seen as more repulsive in the other, and that becomes a big deal for things like salary negotiation. [1] See Women Don't Ask: The High Cost of Avoiding Negotiation - http://www.amazon.com/dp/0553383876/
on “Do Women Avoid Salary Negotiations? [pdf]” ↗> See Women Don't Ask: The High Cost of Avoiding Negotiation - http://www.amazon.com/dp/0553383876/ For what it's worth, there's what looks to be a strong rebuttal of most of the things this book says here: http://fdiv.net/2012/01/20/pseudo-science-and-pseudo-feminis...…
on “Do Women Avoid Salary Negotiations? [pdf]” ↗…discrepancies were found to account for 10-15% of a gendered salary gap observed in Portugal by Card, Cardoso, and Kline. A survey of the lit on gender discrimination in employment is provided in Linda Babcock's "Women Don't Ask." (I feel like I've seen HUD research on negotiation effects for housing, but can't track it down.) Not saying it's not a skill people should learn to deal with the realities out there, but it can be…
on “By The Time You Give Them a Raise, They’re Already Out The Door” ↗…not, not for political leaders but by everyone and debunks quit a bit of what passes as power exerted. Second, this is typically framed as a women's problem. Linda Babcock from Carnegie Mellon wrote Women Don't Ask negotiation and gender divide that takes up how those with survivor syndrome undercut themselves before they even get their first job forever bending their income curve for their entire lives. Overcomng…
on “Ask HN: Eliminating Impostor Syndrome?” ↗I read "Women Don't Ask" and "Ask For It" in the past couple of years. I proceeded to try to ask for things, like being named the tech lead, a promotion, or just more money. It did not help. In fact, I think it may have gotten…
Yes, definitely. This is a common hypothesis, and it gets some study. See, for instance, http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Women_Don't_Ask http://geekfeminism.org/2011/06/17/quick-hit-one-reason-wome... http://fdiv.net/2012/01/20/pseudo-science-and-pseudo-feminis... There is both the possible cause of women being socially conditioned…
on “Ex-Googler says she exposed company-wide pay inequality with spreadsheet” ↗…reading this thread are sympathetic to my position than are offended. Their problem is an unwillingness to shake the boat. You don't seem to have that problem. There was a book written in the 70's called "Women Don't Ask". It starts with a case study about grad school TA assignments, and why men got the best assignments in this particular department. The answer from administrators: "Well, we gave positions to everyone…
on “Announcement: YC alumni will help us read applications ” ↗Often issues are made into gender/race issues because it drives readership and clicks. It's depressing as we miss the root cause and create more alienation and conflict between people. e.g. "Women don't ask" - a book with concepts on salary negotiation vital to many men I know. That said, historically there was clear gender/race discrimination. There is today in pockets, just as there is reverse discrimination.…
on “Women rise through the ranks of IT more rapidly than men” ↗