Time and again, discussions around pay gap have emphasized that women are not good at negotiating pay. However, a new study has busted it and points out that stereotypes about women’s negotiation skills may hurt the cause of pay equity.
Contrary to popular belief, professional women now report negotiating their salaries more often than men but get turned down more often, according to a new study by Laura Kray, Professor at Berkley Haas.
“While men in the past may have been more likely than women to negotiate, the gender difference has since reversed,” news reports quoted Kray, as saying. She added that Continuing to blame women for not negotiating away the gender pay gap impacts worse, perpetuating gender stereotypes and weakening efforts to fight them.”
The new paper, co-authored by Vanderbilt University Associate Professor Jessica Kennedy and Haas post-doctoral scholar Margaret Lee, has been published in the Academy of Management Discoveries.
For the study, Kray and her co-authors looked at a sample of students graduating from a top MBA program between 2015 to 2019. They found that significantly more women than men reported negotiating their job offers— at 54% when compared to 44%.
They also studied a 2019 alumni survey of 1,900 MBA graduates. The survey asked the MBAs for their salaries, questioning them about negotiations for promotions or raises, if these have been successful, or if they have received either without asking.
Reports quoted Kray as saying that the belief that women should be trained to negotiate better was not fixing the discriminatory system.
“Negotiating for pay or promotions is beneficial, and given that negotiation rates are pretty low, there is a lot of room for everyone to do more negotiating. But it’s time to end the notion that the pay gap occurs because women don’t ask,” Kray was quoted as saying by news reports.
