Maybe men are socially conditioned to seek higher salaries (to support their family).
I suppose working for more than $100k might be a rational decision, but research shows it's probably more trouble than it's worth (if you're only thinking of yourself, and don't have an addiction or a boat).
I think this can be read as a different way of saying the same thing. If men are socially conditioned to do something and women are not, then you can see that as women being socially conditioned to not do that thing.
Because if I had some leftover I could start my own business for example.
Good enough salary for living is bullshit and it's driving the middle class to the ground instead upward, since everyone is living well enough but nobody has the saving to switch to entrepreneurship.
And thus we're now reliant as a society to the startup lottery to create new things, where the smartest mind create business just to be screwed over by investors.
The good enough salary negotiation driven by sense of guilt for making more than enough is a fallacy and just lead to exploitation of the middle class. In my first six month of work I managed trough automation to save my employer well more than my salary in yearly maintenance costs, and got a nice pat on the back. that's the kind of bullshit we engineers have to live with.
Screw the good enough salary. They want to pay as cheaply as possible and the only recourse is to grab as much cash as you can because your work is worth money and a lot of it and you deserve a fair share of it.
Why do you assume that most people want (external) power in their lives? Note that it's one thing to talk about getting more money and actually being serious about it. This is where I can see lots of people not wanting all that money, after all. They would want it if it was somehow free but they're only willing to work for much lesser amounts, so they don't really want it.
A reasonable amount of (relative) wealth is accessible to most people if only they're willing to do focused work to gain that sort of income and accumulate that wealth. But the majority of people are willing to buy a lotto ticket they say for fun or a basic 9-to-5 job, and leave it at that.
Maybe men are socially conditioned to seek higher salaries (to support their family).
I suppose working for more than $100k might be a rational decision, but research shows it's probably more trouble than it's worth (if you're only thinking of yourself, and don't have an addiction or a boat).