Less than 24 hours after posting my latest LinkedIn article Are women really better negotiators than men?, there has been a steady flow of comments – 246 so far and counting, as well as 203 likes. What is interesting is that I could not help but wonder how many of the select few of the total 14,000 plus readers to this point in time, have actually read the article before suggesting that my father had married his sister, or that I should insert something somewhere that is an anatomical impossibility – at least I hope it is. Not that dissenting discourse itself bothers me, because as you already know I love a good debate, and I never take anything personally.
Putting aside the lighter moments of perspective within the article itself such as my reference to a Tim Allen grunt of victory, I also wonder if these same voices that did read the article actually clicked on the provided links? By doing so they would have likely gained additional insight into the data behind my asking the question in the first place.
Once again, and while the article was meant to be probing, suggestive and even entertaining – there is no need to be boring as procurement is exciting – whether or not one agrees or disagrees with a position I think that one should do their homework. I also think that when someone does respond they should perhaps provide additional data or research material to shed more light on a subject. Maybe it is just me but this would be far more productive than suggesting that the pea I had for a brain had somehow fallen out of my ear.
So I find myself turning to you dear reader and asking you the question . . . Are women really better negotiators than men and, if they are, why?
Editor’s Note: If you are on the move and would prefer to listen to the article, you can hear it through Umano.
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Procurement Insights 
Kelly Barner
May 22, 2014
My own thought on this is that it may not be the message so much as it is the messenger, as I covered in a post on Buyers Meeting Point this morning:
http://buyersmeetingpoint.com/blogs/bmps-qthe-pointq/entry/a-battle-of-the-sexes-or-just-a-battle
In addition to all of the discussion that has been taken place so far, there was an interesting article in the USA Today this morning about the perspective scientists are taking on differences in gender with regard to medical research:
“Researchers now understand that gender affects everything from how people respond to medicines to their likelihood of getting sick. Every cell bears the mark of the person’s gender, diseases such as Alzheimer’s, multiple sclerosis, and depression are more likely to strike women, while Parkinson’s, autism and schizophrenia are more common in men.”
If generalizations can be made about how gender impacts the brain and body, can we not at least entertain the notion that it also affects how we think and react?
The quote above was from the following article:
Karen Weintraub, “Women Gain More Focus in Medical Studies: Scientists See Gender Affects Everything” USA Today, May 22, 2014. http://usat.ly/1gDQpdS
piblogger
May 22, 2014
Great observations Kelly . . . here is another interesting Forbes article that in suggesting that “men are bigger liars than women” I am certain will fan the flames of those who loathe making comparisons between the sexes – especially for our male readers; http://www.forbes.com/sites/carolkinseygoman/2013/06/04/are-men-bigger-liars-than-women/