Men, Earn $1,000,000 More than Women

For many reasons, “many women go through life thinking money is something controlled by other people, not by themselves,” according to Dr. Linda Austin. It doesn’t even occur to some women that they have control over what they’re paid. Why? In her book What's Holding You Back? (Eight Critical Choices for Women's Success), Dr. Austen says it’s because the lives of women have been controlled by men until quite recently. No nation gave women right to vote until 1893. US was in 1920, Britain was in 1924, Saudi Arabia was in 2011! Battling for other forms of control - right to own property, make free and informed choices about procreation & birth control, work in any profession of their choosing - was just in the 20th century. 

Women typically don't negotiate or don't negotiate as aggressively as men. There's a ton of great research on this topic. This HBR article is a solid starting point. “In repeated studies, the social cost of negotiating for higher pay has been found to be greater for women than it is for men." And this New Yorker article, citing work from Hannah Riley Bowles, chair of the Management, Leadership, and Decision Sciences Area at Harvard's Kennedy School, concurs "But it’s only women who subsequently suffer a penalty: people report that they would be less inclined to work with them, be it as coworkers, subordinates, or bosses. The effect is especially strong, Bowles has found, when people observe women who engage in salary negotiations. “Money in particular seems to be a hot one,” she says.