“Conflict from a Psychological Perspective, and Her place at the table” based on Hall, L. (Ed.). (1993). Negotiation: strategy for mutual gain. USA: SAGE Publications, Inc.

The author is discussing feminist theories and development of social organization with women at the helm of mediation process.
Kolb suggests that women are “often treated as variant, typically an inferior variant” (Hall, 1993, p. 138). The author laments that “women are often hushed in formal negotiations” and she offers three separate reasons for these findings. First reason is that men and women approach negotiations differently. Second, that there is a general perception suggesting that “women do not fare well” as mediators. The third reason is that women possess an “embedded feminine approach” towards negotiations and mediation (page 139-140).
Kolb offers four separate themes towards her rationale. First theme titled “A rational view of others” suggest that “women expect from interactions and grounding for emotional connection, empathy, shared experiences and mutual sensitivity and responsibility”. Second rationale suggests that women “have an embedded form of agency in which boundaries between themselves and others and between a task and its surroundings are overlapping and blurred” (page 140). Third, “because women may feel that aggressiveness can lead away from connection, they tend to emphasize the needs of others so as to allow them to feel powerful” (page 142). And finally, fourth theme, “women seek to engage the other in a joint exploration of ideas whereby understanding is progressively clarified through interaction” (page 143).
In her analysis, Kolb suggests that “women are socialized to believe that conflict with men or those in authority is wrong, and they feel vulnerable in the face of it. In their private lives, conflict often takes on personal and emotional overtones” (page