Women may be perpetuating the gender pay gap through their attitudes towards asking for money, according to a survey of 250 men and women conducted by authors of Sheconomics, a book that examines women and their attitudes towards managing money.  The survey – conducted earlier this year – found that women are two and a half times more likely than men to find pay negotiating humiliating, and that men would rather ask another male for money – and women would too.  Other survey findings include:

• Men are twice as likely as women to feel happy about asking for money
• More than eight out of ten women don’t like asking for money
• Nine out of ten women find asking for money embarrassing (compared to 6 out of 10 men)  
• More men than women think the best strategy is to ‘demand firmly’  
• Twice as many men than women would threaten to resign in order to get more money
• More women prefer to ask ‘in a polite and friendly way’
• Men would rather ask another male for money – so would women
• 60% of men approach pay negotiations ‘with confidence’ compared to just 38% of women 

Why do women feel this way about asking?  Authors of Sheconomics say its got a lot to do with women being socialised to take care of others, often losing their ability to make their own needs a priority in the process.

Thanks to Jane Campbell for letting us know about Sheconomics.