I'd truly love to live in whatever world it is that you guys do. However, where I am, it's quite different.

 A 2001 survey of business owners with M.B.A.s conducted by the Rochester Institute of Technology found that money was the primary motivator for only 29% of women, versus 76% of men. Women prioritized flexibility, fulfillment, autonomy and safety. This shows the point I made earlier, that it's because of choices they make that they typically (not always) earn less. Men make decisions that result in their making more money. On the other hand, women make decisions that earn them better lives (e.g., more family and friend time).

What happens when women make the same lucrative decisions typically made by men? They actually earn more. For example, when a male and a female civil engineer both stay with their respective companies for ten years, travel and relocate equally and take the same career risks, the woman ends up making more. And among workers who have never been married and never had children, women earn 117% of what men do. (From an article on forbes.com.)

According to Catalyst, a nonprofit that advocates for gender equality in the business world, men are nine times more likely to be responsible for bottom-line sales, marketing and finances, not human resources or public relations. Or, to put it differently, they take jobs that require longer hours, produce more stress, and are come with greater responsibility. I don't know about you, but I've never seen my HR director working overnight or on weekends.

Do companies favor men for these greater responsibilities to begin with? Sometimes. Overall, though, track records being equal, whoever is more willing to relocate, travel and work 80-hour weeks receives greater responsibilities. The male corporate model is built on a man's greater willingness to be a slave of sorts--especially once he has to provide for children.

Chris - if companies only have to pay a woman 75 cents for the same exact work that they pay a man $1.00 to do, why do they hire men in the first place?