The Log In Your Eye: Eliminating Gender Bias In Mediator Performance Evaluations
Diane J. Levin 08/17/2009
Public credentialing of mediators will necessarily involve some kind of evaluation process - which raises a whole host of vexing questions. Among the many that I anticipate is one that particularly troubles me: given the realities of implicit bias, and the difficulties still facing women and minorities in gaining visibility in the upper reaches of our field, what would be done to ensure that any evaluation of mediators is free from it?

Gender Justice In Ghana Through Court-Connected ADR
Senyo M. Adjabeng 07/20/2009
Women and children have mostly been the most vulnerable when any form of trouble befalls a group of people. In ensuring that the vulnerable especially women and children obtain speedy and effective justice, Court-Connected (Court Annexed) ADR may be considered as an explorable opportunity and alternative for reaching a mutually acceptable resolution in some cases of abuse or potential abuse.

Race, Gender, and Class: How Much Of A Role Do They Play In Mediation?
Elizabeth Moreno 06/29/2009
Recent studies have come to life as to the role race, gender and class of the mediator plays in mediation. Does race play any discernible role in mediation compared to gender or socioeconomic class?

Negotiation 101: Gender War Or Gender Peace And Prosperity?
Victoria Pynchon 05/11/2009
Although I am indisputably a "woman lawyer," I have never thought of myself in those terms. I'm a lawyer. And I'm a woman. I'm also a writer, a step-mother, a wife, a daughter, a river rafter, and an aficionado of squash (the game, not the vegetable), photography, literature, and theater. Oh yes. I'm also Caucasian. I rarely have to think of myself in those terms, however, because the society in which I live doesn't require it of me. I'm aware of my skin color only when I'm with my African-American friends or in a racially mixed workplace (shamefully rare in modern American private legal and ADR practice).

Dispute Resolution by Old White Men: Gender Prejudice Sinks Abriration Award
Victoria Pynchon 07/15/2008
O.K., the subject line was meant to shock you and to draw criticism for what I will admit is my greatest unresolved prejudicial default -- that white men over 65 who didn't participate in the  American cultural revolution of the late nineteen sixties and early 1970's did not and will never "get it."  The Court opinion that triggered the headline and the recollections below is here.  The "executive summary" is as follows:  One of...

Gender Differences in Negotiation
Nancy Hudgins 06/10/2008
When Linda Babcock, a professor of economics at Carnegie-Mellon University, spoke at the ABA Dispute Resolution Section’s annual conference last April, she wove together her research, her personal experiences and her stories about negotiation in a fascinating and compelling way. Her latest research has just been published in a book she co-authored with Sara Laschever called Ask For It. Diane Levin at Mediation Channel has a great review here and Vickie Pynchon from Settle It Now...

Armed Conflict and Sexual Assault
Victoria Pynchon 10/06/2008
Women, who hold civil society together in the course of armed conflict, are rarely at the table when peace is being negotiated.  As this lengthy piece asserts, we cannot ignore the sexual assaults that continue after "peace" has been achieved. 

Men And Women Are Cut From The Same Cloth In Communications — Research Finds Similarity In Communication Patterns
Steve Mehta 09/07/2009
It is no secret that men and women communicate differently. Hundreds of books have been written on the difference between the genders in communicating. New research, however, shows that men and women may be similar in aspects of communicating.

Women and Empathy: Is there a Difference?
Jan Frankel Schau 06/01/2009
I was struck by President Obama's appointment of Judge Sonia Sotomayor as Supreme Court Justice this morning. In choosing her, he affirmed that he was looking for a woman as well as a person who held a "different sense of justice", by which I understood that he was seeking out someone who would listen to the legal issues of the day with a certain empathy that may be harder to attain in a man.

Susan Hammer Of Portland Has A Lot To Say
Geoff Sharp 05/11/2009
Leading Pacific North-West mediator, Susan Hammer of Portland, Oregon was interviewed by Doug Noll on his internet radio show recently while in NYC.

Never Negotiate With Your Creditors Out Of Fear, But Never Fear To Negotiate Lower Interest Rates, Waiver Of Interest, Late Fees, Etc.
Victoria Pynchon 05/11/2009
O.K., times are tough. And it takes no small amount of courage to face the financial disaster that credit cards can cause to even those who feel themselves to be the most sober of financial citizens. Then it takes real courage to pick up a telephone and make a request to a disembodied and not-likely-friendly voice to ask for help bailing you out of a mess you can barely believe you find yourself in.

Negotiating Women On New Day Talk Radio Easter Sunday Noon
Victoria Pynchon 04/13/2009
I've trained executive women to use their natural talents, skill and affiliative natures to overcome the statistics I'm about to give you, straight from Babcock and Laschever's site Women Don't Ask: Negotiation and the Gender Divide. Here are the dreary statistics on women and negotiation from Babcock and Laschever's book Women Don't Ask.

Negotiating Women: Never Negotiate Out Of Fear, But Never Fear To Negotiate
Victoria Pynchon 12/08/2008
Video below is part I of an interview on negotiation challenges, strategies and tactics for women with Vicki Flaugher, founder of SmartWoman Guides. The full audio of the video is here along with Ms. Flaugher's kind comments about our conversation.

Where are all the female law bloggers? Hanging out in the ADR blogosphere of course
Diane J. Levin 10/06/2008
C.C. Holland, writing for Legal Technology laments the lack of strong female voices among legal bloggers and asks, “Where Are All the Female Law Bloggers?”

Where are women who mediate, part 2: how can you hold a panel discussion on diversity and forget to include women?
Diane J. Levin 07/21/2008
Last week fellow mediator, blogger and rabble-rouser Victoria Pynchon published a post with a confrontational title: “Dispute Resolution by Old White Men: Gender Prejudice Sinks Arbitration Award“. Lobbed like a Molotov cocktail, Vickie’s post blew gender bias apart, as she recited a litany of examples of discrimination spanning decades against women inside and outside the legal profession. It’s not just the persistence of gender bias that makes women like Vickie and...