Professor Urges Women in Science to Harness 'The Power of Asking'

February 11, 2009

Negotiation is more than just netting a higher salary and more vacation time — it is central to achieving short-term and long-term professional goals.

No where is negotiation more key for women than in the traditionally male-dominated environment of academic and industrial science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, where women need to go beyond what is standard and start asking for more.

That was the key message from Victoria Medvec, the Adeline Barry Davee Professor of Management & Organizations at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management, who spoke to a group of 80 women graduate students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics on Jan. 22 at the McCormick Tribune Center on Northwestern's Evanston campus in a talk titled, “The Power of Asking: Negotiation Skills for Women in STEM”.

As the executive director of the Center for Executive Women at Kellogg School of Management, Medvec is well-aware that women often wait for opportunity to knock at their door. But this mindset greatly hinders women from advancing and realizing the results of their hard work, she said, and she encouraged women to "think broadly about our objectives and what you will need to be successful in the future."

Graduate students often see their world as "non-negotiable" with their adviser making the rules, she said. But most graduate students don't recognize the control they have —presenting at conferences, order of authors on publications, buying new equipment, hiring lab technicians, and outsourcing remedial tasks are all negotiable, according to Medvec.

She also discussed the basic strategies of successful negotiation and highlighted the importance of pre-negotiation preparation — laying out a script and planning a response for all possible outcomes.

The seminar was proposed and facilitated by Kendra Erk, a PhD candidate in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science. It was supported in part by a TGS Professional Development Grant, Katherine Faber, professor of materials science and engineering, the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and Graduate Women Across Northwestern (GWAN).