Women Can’t Negotiate

Jeff Yablon
Jul 27, 2017 · 2 min read

Women can’t negotiate. Go ahead; yell and scream and call me a sexist. Problem is, at least one quite-successful woman business investor and executive agrees. She phrases it not that women can’t negotiate, but that women don’t negotiate — and of course is correct.

But in the final analysis, there may not be a practical difference.

I raise the issue because the difference between “women can’t negotiate” and “women won’t negotiate” is subtle, but important. It’s like a discussion of the pay gap separating men and women. It’s real. And it’s not OK. But

The gender pay gap isn’t about discrimination

the gender pay gap isn’t about discrimination; it’s about as-yet-uncorrected history … and because women as a group are bad negotiators.

Male, female, or other, I suggest you pause for a breath right about here.

Hopefully, including “other” in that last sentence tells you a bit about how I see this issue. I don’t really believe there are more than two “genders”, but I accept that others do. And acceptance is what this piece is about. Accept that beautiful women often have a particular effect on others (men too; good looks often matter). Simple notoriety matters too; I wasn’t surprised when Monica Lewinsky garnered almost eight thousand Twitter followers in the first thirty minutes she had an account, and three years later her 150,000 followers shouldn’t come as a surprise.

Should they?

Sometimes we need to take a step back and analyze rather than react

Fact is, sometimes we need to take a step back and analyze rather than react. Sometimes, everybody is right. Just because. There’s no gender statement anywhere in there.

Women Can’t Negotiate

Where we fall off, whether it’s business or personal, whether we’re talking facts, statistics, or opinions, lies somewhere near the women can’t negotiate thing. Of course women can negotiate. And men can nurture. And all of this is in a constant state of flux.

The flux is what we help you and your business navigate. If you want to close your gender pay gap, we’ll show you how. And if you want all of your employees to become better negotiators we’ll take that on. Business change is a personal thing; what you need isn’t what the next guy is looking for.

Women can negotiate. The thing that matters is changing your business landscape enough that they want to.

Business Change and Business Process

Talking About Business Change is Easy. MAKING Business Change is Not.

Jeff Yablon

Written by

Business, Marketing and Technology Wonk. Stop by http://answerguy.com and http://thewebsitehelpers.com

Business Change and Business Process

Talking About Business Change is Easy. MAKING Business Change is Not.

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