Women and Negotiations

A special Woman's Hour episode all about women and negotiation.

Nicky Perfect is the former Deputy Head of the elite New Scotland Yard Hostage and Crisis Negotiation Unit. She has travelled the world teaching negotiation and working with the Government on international operations. She’ll be joining Hayley Hassall throughout the programme sharing her own experiences and advice, and taking us through how what she learnt can be used in our everyday lives.

What has been the role of women in negotiations historically? Professor Margaret Macmillan specialises in British Imperial and International History from the 19th to the 20th Century. In those days, negotiations never involved women on paper – but that wasn’t always the case in reality. She joins Hayley to tell us more.

Nomi Bar-Yaacov has been all over the world mediating and negotiating international conflicts. She’ll tell Hayley some of her experiences, as well as how these negotiations happen, and the different roles women play.

How much of your daily life do you spend negotiating? Perhaps at work, or with your children – or even in-laws? Mum and a mic on Instagram, Jane Dowden, joins Hayley to chat through negotiations she has with her twins, and clinical psychologist Catherine Hallissey will talk about what goes on in our brains while we’re negotiating, and the best way to do so with family.

At the end of last year, the largest negotiations including delegates from all over the world took place – COP28, the United Nation's climate summit. Rachel Kyte was there – and at several previous COPs as well, having served as special representative of the UN secretary-general and chief executive officer of Sustainable Development for All among other roles. She’ll tell Hayley all about how negotiations like COP work behind-the-scenes, including the strops and the drama that lead eventually to world-changing commitments.

Presenter: Hayley Hassall Producer: Lottie Garton