Dr. Andrea Schneider started the seminar by explaining how family dynamics, birth order, mentors, professional training, ethnicity, and gender can shape someone's negotiation skills. When speaking about gender being a factor that affects someone's negotiation skills, Schneider clarified that it is the difference in socialization and not the biological differences of the sex assigned at birth that have an impact on how prepared someone is to participate in a negotiation.

Next, Schneider presented the five skills that are essential in a negotiation: assertiveness, empathy, social intuition, flexibility, and ethicality. She explained that to be assertive one needs to be prepared and have the competence and the presentation skills to talk about what one wants. Schneider talked about flawed studies, which indicate that women do not negotiate enough and explained that when women are trained how to negotiate, they do so at the same rate as men.

On the topic of empathy, Schneider elaborated that she likes to think of this skill as the ability to map the territory that one must invade in conflict. It is necessary to understand where the other side is in order to negotiate effectively and be able to change somebody's mind. An important component of empathy is listening, and Schneider pointed out that women are considered to be better listeners because of socialization.

Schneider then explained that to be successful in negotiating one must possess both outcome and process flexibility. To be outcome flexible means to be prepared to consider other possibilities and not be quick to reject an offer when the other side is not able to offer you the desired salary, but perhaps it can instead offer better benefits or more vacation days. Process flexibility is the ability to use an array of skills in order to be persuasive and work with the other side to reach an optimal agreement. Although there is no definitive evidence on whether men or women are more flexible, Schneider pointed out that women are more likely to consult with others before making a decision.

Social intuition encompasses social and emotional intelligence, including the capability to read non-verbal and paraverbal communication such as eye contact, tone, pace of speech, and understanding humor. Schneider noted that women are far more socialized to do this better.

Lastly, the speaker focused on a skill that she coined 'ethicality.' Schneider explained that in this skill category deals with trustworthiness, trustfulness, and reputation. It is important to be aware of how one comes across during the negotiation.

Schneider finished the seminar with a brief discussion on how to improve the negotiation skills. She encouraged the public to constantly practice negotiating in order to build the resilience necessary to hear 'no' without falling apart. The seminar ended with a Q&A session where students asked questions on the role of socio-economic status on someone's negotiation preparedness, cultural differences, and the lack of institutionalized practices in negotiations surrounding women's issues among others.

Speaker's insight: Schneider sees the process of learning how to negotiate as a reflection of the discovery of what you want to be when you grow up. She explained that negotiating is a window to how you were raised and what your growth opportunities are. She noted that throughout the years she has been teaching law students how to negotiate, she has noticed a more prominent focus on mental health as something worth negotiating for. While Schneider has not seen a stark difference between how her male and female students react to the lessons, she acknowledged that the people who go to law school most likely are more assertive than the average person and they then go through years of training on how to be assertive and to advocate.

hosted by Professor Susanna Mancini


This talk will explore the myths and realities of gender differences in negotiation. Old tropes and stereotypes assert that women do not negotiate at the same rate as men, and that this difference explains the pay gap seen throughout society. We instead will explore data from more recent studies showing that women, and men, need similar skills to be effective—and that women often perform better at these crucial negotiation skills.

Andrea Kupfer Schneider is Professor of Law and Director of the Kukin Program for Conflict Resolution at the Cardozo School of Law.

Prior to this, Schneider was the director of a nationally ranked dispute resolution (DR) program at Marquette University Law School in Wisconsin, where she taught DR, negotiation, ethics and international conflict resolution for over two decades. There she also acted as the inaugural director of the University's Institute for Women's Leadership.

Schneider has published numerous articles on negotiation, plea bargaining, negotiation pedagogy, ethics, gender and international conflict. Her recent books include Discussions in Dispute Resolution: The Foundational Articles, (edited with Hinshaw and Cole, winner of the 2022 CPR Book Award); Dispute Resolution: Beyond the Adversarial Model (with Menkel-Meadow, Love and Moffitt), Negotiation: Processes for Problem-Solving, (with Menkel-Meadow & Love), Mediation: Practice, Policy, and Ethics, (with Menkel-Meadow & Love), Dispute Resolution: Examples & Explanations (with Moffitt); and Negotiating Crime: Plea Bargaining, Problem Solving, and Dispute Resolution in the Criminal Context (with Alkon).

She is a founding editor of Indisputably, a blog for the ADR law faculty, and started the Dispute Resolution Works-in-Progress annual conferences in 2007. In 2016, she gave her first TEDx talk entitled Women Don't Negotiate and Other Similar Nonsense. She was the 2017 recipient of the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution Award for Outstanding Scholarly Work, the highest scholarly award given by the ABA in the field of dispute resolution. Schneider received her AB cum laude from Princeton University's School of Public and International Affairs and her JD cum laude from Harvard Law School. She also received a Diploma from the Academy of European Law in Florence, Italy.