The Boston Globe reports the study's participants included 21 men and 17 women who were nearing completion of their MBAs. Lisa Barron, a professor at the university, set up simulated interviews, which included an offer of a salary of $61,000.

Men responded to the salary offer by requesting for $68,556 on average, while women asked for $67,000, the newspaper reports.

The study found that women and men approach salary negotiations differently -- with 70 percent of men indicating they felt they deserved to be paid more than other workers, while 71 percent of women told the researcher they believed they should make the same as others, according to the newspaper.

Sheila Wellington, president of Catalyst Inc, an organization that studies women's careers, says that women don't promote their strengths as much as men do.

"Women have trouble tooting their own horns, shining a light on themselves," says Wellington. "It shows up around salary. It shows up in making clear in your job what a good job you've done."

Deborah Kolb, a professor at Simmons College in Boston, tells the newspaper she questions the findings of the study because they were based on the mock interviews.

She says that research should center on perceptions of gender in the workplace, not comparing the negotiating skills of men and women. Kolb says some people interpret data from studies like Barron's to mean: "women have a problem."

Source:

Boston Globe