Ask for It: How Women Can Use the Power of Negotiation to Get What They Really Want Book

I met with Linda Babcock in 2019 in one of her workshops at the University of Pittsburgh. Before that, I already read her first book as a graduate student. Reading the first book helped me a lot to think about what it means to negotiate within academia, which is taught or reminded us as a thing "almost never".

The timing for reading this second book was even better, because it intersected with an actual job negotiation phase of my life. As I read through the book, and as I went through the interviews and negotiations with multiple places, I was finding solutions that can address the particular issue I was dealing with :)

More than anything, it has given me a confidence to ask more, literally "ask more". What is offered usually does not match with our abilities, skill sets, and diverse perspectives that we offer. And I asked more of anything regardless of their response :). While some of my requests might not be in the employers' capacity to provide, I might still receive so many other things during that process that they did not even offer initially or consider its possibility:) such as asking for a second computer screen and it is needed to do workshops online! This can not only help you but also for future employees and improve the working conditions in that company.

I recommend this book to everyone, particularly people from academia and even more so for women in academia, who have not had the chance to learn the signifcance of negotiation. We should remind ourselves and others that negotiation does need to be considered as a fight or battle. It is simply a conversation where you are trying to do best for you and where the negotitors try to do what best for their interest.


People often relate women's negotiation with a lack of modesty or having way too high ambitions. For one, there is sexim associated with the idea of who can negotiate and who should not. Second, we dont negotiate because of the financial reasons but for being happier in our current or prospective positions. Negotiatin allows us to feel being valued and belong to a workspace, and boost our confidence for our skill sets, and finally last but not least increase our work engagement knowing that our talents are equitably compensated!