Negotiation is in the air

Hi! I popped back for a brief visit to blogland, with the idea of sharing some info about negotiating and what do I find? Prettier than Napolean and Magic Cookie both have posts up that touch on the same issue - what skills to use to get what you want. Is there something in the air?

Here's why it's been on my mind.

While googling ways to help my kid deal with a very tough year, I stumbled upon Professor Linda Babcock's research on gender and negotiations. Then I found that they've developed a Girl Scout badge called The Win-Win Badge to help young girls (8-12yo) learn to negotiate.
I thought that was pretty cool. Of course, I immediately went and did the badge with our troop (did I mention I'm a troop leader this year? interesting development...enjoying it)

It reminded me of something I'd seen on TV years ago, and again after much googling, I found it. Two video clips from Good Morning America talking about the wage gap and how women are less likely to directly say what they want during salary negotiations. Turns out, we're not too timid; we're appropriately gauging the audience's likely disapproval of a woman being assertive.

So the moral of the story, after much research on my part, is: go ahead and ask for what you want, but make sure you ask for it while remaining "likeable".