Women tend to feel guilty about ASKING for a pay raise. Why are we so afraid, wimminz?

While Becky, a journalist said, “When I go into a negotiation… I think about maintaining that relationship before I think about my own needs really,” Political Strategist, Susannah writes “I feel so guilty. I worry that I’m putting them in a difficult situation, especially if I’m asking for something that I think will be hard for them to give to me.”

Some are worried about the hatred they’d receive if they ask for a hike.

Why are we so afraid?

“As a society, we teach women that it is not appropriate or “feminine” for them to focus on what they want, assert their own ambitions, and pursue their self-interest—and we don’t like it when they do. From the time they’re very young, girls are taught to focus on the needs of others rather than on their own. The messages girls receive—from their parents and teachers, from the books they’re given, from the movies and television shows they watch, and from the behavior of the adults around them—can be so powerful that as women they may not even understand that their reluctance to ask for what they want is a learned behavior and one that can be unlearned. They often don’t realize that they can ask for something they want, that asking is even possible.”