On August 25th, Dallas SWE gathered for our first professional development event of FY22, which was a Negotiation Panel featuring 3 seasoned speakers on this topic, Kaley Young, Terriekka Cardenas, and Rana Karimi.
The event opened with Rana setting the stage on why you should negotiate and presented the data around the current gender wage gap. Currently, women on average earn 18.5% less1 than men in the same occupation. The gap widens for women of color. Over the course of a career, this could contribute to hundreds of thousands lost for women. If today’s progress continues, it will still take another 38 years to reach pay parity. Therefore, it is crucial that we as women are aware of the opportunity that lie ahead of us to ensure we advocate for ourselves and others as much as possible to ensure we are just as competitive as men in the workforce. Then, Terriekka presented tips for negotiating based on her experience as a business owner and entrepreneur. Negotiation is an art form and is all about collaboration and communication. Despite the reservations or hesitation you may have, it’s important to be confident in yourself and your net worth. She explained how it’s important to be prepared for any negotiation by developing your plan and value proposition. Then, Kaley presented her experience as a recruiter on common negotiating mistakes she has seen. She encouraged everyone to negotiate the first offer, and never to settle for the first number. Additionally, you don’t need to wait for the “right time” to negotiate. Advocating for yourself is a continual process and you need to be clear with managers and sponsors of your goals and your path to achieve them so that when it is time to have the discussion, your have strong ground to stand on.
We hope this panel informed our audience to advocate for themselves and normalize conversations around negotiation.
You can view the slides from the meeting here.
1Institute for Women’s Policy Research. 2020. “Women’s Median Earnings as a Percent
of Men’s Median Earnings, 1960-2019 (Full-Time, Year-Round Workers) with Projection
for Pay Equity in 2059.” IWPR Publication #Q086 <https://iwpr.org/iwpr-issues/employment-and-earnings/womens-median-earnings-as-a-percent-of-mens-median-earnings1960-2019-full-time-year-round-workers-with-projection-for-pay-equity-in-2059/>
