"Asking, Bending, and Shaping: A Reconceptualization of Gender in Career Negotiations" — Hannah Riley Bowles (Harvard Kennedy School) will present preliminary findings and theoretical propositions generated from three qualitative studies of executives' career-related negotiations (co-authored with Bobbi Thomason and Julia Bear). The findings challenge the popular depictions that "women don't ask" when it comes to career advancement. The paper is motivated by a review of the existing literature on gender in career negotiations, which is primarily experimental and emphasizes women's disadvantage relative to men "asking" for higher compensation. Data on executives' career-related negotiations suggest that both male and female executives negotiate regularly for career-related opportunities that involve "bending" and "shaping" organizational norms. Research findings suggest gender constraints on career negotiations relate to gender incongruence rather than to gender differences.