Gender, Risk Taking, and Negotiation Performance

Over the past three decades, the number of women entering the legal profession has increased substantially. Despite significant expansion in the number of female law students and legal practitioners, many individuals, including both legal employers and academics, stereotypically think that male and female attorneys behave differently in critical situations. These individuals suspect that female attorneys are less successful negotiators than their male counterparts. This article explores this assumption by empirically testing the relative abilities of men and women to perform successfully on negotiation exercises. It concludes that there is no significant difference in the relative abilities of men and women to achieve beneficial results for their clients and discusses how this research relates to women in the legal profession generally