Did you know that by neglecting to negotiate her starting salary for her first job, a woman may sacrifice over a half a million pounds in earnings by the end of her career? Yet, as research reveals, men are four times as likely to ask for higher pay than are women with the same qualifications. In this eye-opening book, Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever draw on research in psychology, sociology, economics and organisational behaviour as well as dozens of interviews to explore the personal and societal reasons women seldom ask for what they need, want and deserve at work and at home. Women Don't Ask - a sensation when published in the US in 2003 - is a call to arms that will help you recognise the ways in which our culture perpetuates inequalities - and how you can begin to overcome them.

Linda Babcock is James M. Walton Professor of Economics at the H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She has also been a visiting professor at Harvard Business School, The Unicersity of Chicago Graduate School of Business, and the California Institute of Technology. A specialist in negotiation and dispute resolution, her research has appeared in the most prestigious economics, inductrial relations, and law journals.

Sara Laschever's work has been published by the New York Times, the New York Review of Books, and Vogue, among other publications. She was also the principal interviewer for Project Access, a landmark Harvard University srudy on women in science careers funded by the National Science Foundation. She lives in Concord, Mass.