Why are Women Less Likely to Negotiate? The Influence of Expectancy Considerations and Contextual Framing on Gender Differences in the Initiation of Negotiation

Abstract

According to social role theory, women are less likely to initiate negotiations and have lower expectancies about negotiation success because the feminine gender role is inconsistent with the negotiator role. However, gender differences should be amplified in masculine contexts (with even more inconsistency between the negotiator role and the feminine gender role) and reduced in feminine contexts (with more consistency between the negotiator role and the feminine gender role). We showed in Study 1 (N = 1,306 students) that negotiators’ expectancies about being successful in negotiations mediated the effect of gender on real retrospective negotiation behavior. In Study 2, an online scenario experiment (N = 167 students and employees), we found that the framing of the negotiation context (feminine vs. masculine) moderated the mediation effect. We provide implications for theory, practice, and research methods by unearthing mechanisms and moderators of gender differences in the area of negotiations.