Living for oneself

I went to a workshop about how women could better negotiate their salaries - the whole $0.77 that women make per dollar that men do seems to be more complex than just some kind of overt discrimination against women. Women apparently are less likely to negotiate unless they're doing it on behalf of someone (or thinking about the whole group). It's an interesting phenomenon.

Essentially women will perform/negotiate better when they are thinking beyond themselves. I wonder if the whole maternal instinct thing has anything to do with it.

It's interesting to me that people often seem to like being take care of. I mean for obvious reason, I understand why that's the case but I can't help but to feel like something is wrong with me when I want to be the one taking care of myself.

Perhaps this is a poor example, but often times, people have talked about how they like it when someone cooks for them or how they won't really cook well for themselves unless they are cooking for someone else. I love cooking for myself and for others. But perhaps it's because I love cooking that I can say that when others find the task burdensome.

I wonder if it has something to do with me having a method to what seems to be my madness and I don't like it when people mess with my processes. Perhaps this is why I find people who enter my space without permission to be invasive.

Humans are meant to be social creatures, but I think that to a certain extent, one must be able to live independently to contribute to that social aspect. The idea that a team that is made up of only strong players comes to mind (kind of like the teams in Naruto! :D).

Eh. I don't know where I'm going with this. I guess with women, it almost seems like there is an impossibility to this aspect of independence. Does that mean that women should be more selfish when it comes to negotiation? And what does that say about women or the perception of women or the societal influence on women when they "inherently" seem to do better when it's not for them? Is there some kind of underlying thinking in society that women must be selfless, giving, and sacrificial?

Actually, I suppose there is. The very epitome of motherhood are those amazing but somewhat self-defeating images, news stories, and what have you that show how great women are when they fight for their children. How come we never see that with men? Or do we and I've just missed them? Hm.