The groundbreaking classic that explores how women can and should negotiate for parity in their workplaces, homes, and beyond When Linda Babcock wanted to know why male graduate students were teaching their own courses while female students were always assigned as assistants, her dean said: "More men ask. The women just don't ask." Drawing on psychology, sociology, economics, and organizational behavior as well as dozens of interviews with men and women in different fields and at all stages in their careers, Women Don't Ask explores how our institutions, child-rearing practices, and implicit assumptions discourage women from asking for the opportunities and resources that they have earned and deserve-perpetuating inequalities that are fundamentally unfair and economically unsound. Women Don't Ask tells women how to ask, and why they should.

""Women Don't Ask" helps women learn how to communicate their desires. This is absolutely essential and basic information since we can't read brainwaves. Speak up or surrender your goals!"--Patricia Schroeder, President & CEO, Association of American Publishers

""Women Don't Ask" does an amazing job in identifying and providing solutions to a very real issue: the challenges women face in negotiating. Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever have done a superb job not only in highlighting the problem of gender differences in negotiation but also in providing ways to begin fixing it. Example after example of the financial and emotional impacts make this issue extremely compelling. Any senior manager needs to be aware of the significant ramifications both in and out of the workplace. I highly recommend "Women Don't Ask" as a must read for executives--female and male."--Jim Berrien, President and Publisher, Forbes Magazine Group

"In this brilliant book Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever provide readers with the means not only of navigating the difficulties of negotiation, but also of fully engaging a modern world where traditional roles and norms are receding and business dealing has become more important. By looking at negotiation through the lens of gender, Babcock and Laschever explain why we-men and women alike--develop our skills as negotiators, and in so doing they instruct us on how to become better negotiators. By illuminating negotiation through the real-life experiences of women and men, Babcock and Laschever underscore that most important lesson in all of negotiating: that the best deal is the deal that works best for all parties."--Robert J. Shiller, author of "IrrationalExuberance" and "The New Financial Order"

"Women don't ask the important questions that will make them successful--but Babcock and Laschever do. This is an important study of how women can become their own best advocates by knowing how to ask for exactly what they want in their public and private lives. The secret is in believing that one can negotiate almost anything. Venus and Mars, bosses and tyros: this is the book you need to bring peace and happiness to every relationship."--Harriet Rubin, author of "The Princessa: Machiavelli for Women"

"This book is an eye opener, a call to arms, and a plan for action; it is enlightening, unsettling, and, ultimately, inspiring. Although women have made great strides in American society, the reality is that, since the 1990s, progress has slowed to almost a standstill. Gracefully and with humor, Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever tell a riveting story about an invisible problem that's been hiding in plain sight: one major reason that women still work for less money and advance less far and less fast than men is that women themselves have accepted the status quo and refrained from asking for more than they're offered and for less than they need or deserve. They make the novel--and important--point that negotiation may be one of feminism's final frontiers. Of all the books about the roadblocks our society erects in women's paths, this one may prove to be the most useful in everyday life."--Teresa Heinz

""Women Don't Ask" is a compelling and fresh look at the gender-in-negotiation question. Practitioners can act on the advice in the book, and researchers will be asking new questions for decades. This book will fundamentally change how wethink."--Max H. Bazerman, Harvard Business School

"Eye-opening and riveting."--Virginia Valian, Hunter College, City University of New York

"The authors offer advice that is practical and likely to result in desired changes for women who want to be able to accomplish more in multiple spheres of their lives."--Kathleen L. McGinn, Harvard University

From the authors of Women Don't Ask," " the groundbreaking book that revealed just how much women lose when they avoid negotiation," " here is the action plan that women all over the country requested--a guide to negotiating anything effectively using strategies that feel comfortable to you as a woman.
Whether it's a raise, that overdue promotion, an exciting new assignment, or even extra help around the house, this four-phase program, backed by years of research and practical success, will show you how to recognize how much "more "you really deserve, maximize your bargaining power, develop the best strategy for your situation, and manage the reactions and emotions that may arise--on both sides. Guided step-by-step, you'll learn how to draw on your special strengths to reach agreements that benefit everyone involved. This collaborative, problem-solving approach will propel you to new places both professionally and personally--and open doors you thought were closed.

To research this groundbreaking book, Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever spent several years talking to thousands of women about the high cost of failing to ask for what they want. Through that research, one thing became abundantly clear: feelings of self doubt - that voice inside your head that says 'Don't get pushy. Do you really deserve more?' - consistently prevent women from getting the things they desire most, whether it's a pay rise, a nicer office, or even just some help around the house. In Ask for It, Babcock and Laschever have developed a unique, cooperative approach to negotiating that begins before you ever get to a bargaining table, one that will help women realise their self-worth and identify their goals as well as maximise their bargaining power. It will help propel you to new places both professionally and personally - and open doors you thought were closed. Essential reading for women everywhere, Ask For It will help you recognise how much more you deserve - and show you how to get it.