Geek Feminism Wiki

At the 2014 Grace Hopper Celebration, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was asked what women should do if they are reluctant to ask for a raise. He replied:

It's not really about asking for the raise but knowing and having faith that the system will actually give you the right raises as you go along. And that I think might be one of the additional superpowers that quite frankly women who don't ask for raises have. Because that's good karma, that'll come back.[1]

This is unequivocally bad advice. Despite the fact that women are much more likely than men to be perceived negatively for asking for a raise[2], people of all genders who do not negotiate salary end up being paid less than those who do.

Online reaction to Nadella's statements was swift[3][4][5][6], and the story quickly received extensive media coverage around the world.

Nadella took to twitter shortly after the session, saying that his remarks had been "inarticulate". He later sent out a company-wide email at Microsoft, characterizing his response to the salary question as "completely wrong".

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