Friends' Recommendations

Got more recommendations from friends this week:

• Women Don't Ask: Negotiation and the Gender Divide by Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever
• University Inc.: The Corporate Corruption of Higher Education by Jennifer Washburn

Gender equality seems to be on people's minds -- maybe it has to do with Sarah Palin? -- and a friend recommended Women Don't Ask: Negotiation and the Gender Divide by Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever to learn about why women don't earn the same amount as men. Using research and interviews, this book answers these questions and more:

• Why do most women see a negotiation as an automatic fight instead of a chance to get what they deserve?
• Why are women afraid to ask for what they want in the workplace?
• And perhaps most importantly, why don't women feel entitled to ask for it?

A friend who knows I'm an alum of MIT recommended University Inc.: The Corporate Corruption of Higher Education by Jennifer Washburn. Washburn argues that American universities have discarded the very values and practices that have made them so successful asthey have made secretive connections with private industry that have begun to "undermine the foundation of public trust on which all universities depend." Janet Rae-Dupree quotes Washburn and mentions this book in this September 6, 2008 New York Times article "When Academia Puts Profit Ahead of Wonder," which I found to be an interesting critique of unversity technology licensing.

So much to read...