Tyler Cowen mentions (but doesn't link to!) a NYTimes review of a recent book about how women negotiate, titled "Women Don't Ask".
Most of what the review discusses tracks with typical stereotypes, but one hypothesis stood out to me:
Consider pay. One study found that male graduates of an Ivy League business school negotiated for a 4.3 percent higher starting salary than they were initially offered, while female graduates negotiated for just 2.7 percent. If the first offer was the same for each, say $35,000, this would amount to a $560 advantage for the men.Fascinating, if true.Over time this advantage could snowball. If men negotiated a 2 percent raise each year and women accepted 1 percent, after 40 years the annual salary would be $79,024 for men and $52,987 for women — nearly a 50 percent gap. The cumulative gap over a career would exceed $440,000.
Professor Babcock and Ms. Laschever [the authors] speculate that much if not all of the male-female gap in earnings can be explained by women's aversion to negotiating.
Yes, it's true. Or so I hear - have no trouble with the negotiations thing myself. :)
hln
I know it's true for me, but I can't speak for others of my sex.
How about all those women who love haggling at the market, know how to wheedle good grades out of our professors, and generally get their way in life? (Ex: A number of my female relatives)
How about them? They're aberrations! No, seriously though, the study can obviously only speak in generalities; there are certainly going to be exceptions. I don't know enough about the study to have an opinion on its veracity, but your anecdotal evidence can't refute its conclusions, in any event.