The most dangerous jobs are predominantly taken by men. In some cases dangerous jobs pay more. Women are simply not signing up for these jobs. A stay-at-home mom who used to work a corporate job will NOT become the CEO of a company. She can't expect CEO pay as an entry-level secretary turned stay-at-home mom. That's not how it works. Women who do the exact same jobs as men get paid exactly the same.
If we're talking about working individuals, women are paid the same. Yes, you have women that work hard at their jobs. As a whole, you have a higher percentage of women who opt out of the workforce than men for different reasons (raising kids or following the social convention of being supported by a man). If they are earning less on the books, they are benefitting in some way by the income earned by the man of the house. As individuals, they earn the same for the same job. As a group, they might earn less collectively, but earning versus spending are two different things.
One thing people fail to mention is that even if a woman is paid less, her money can go further if she doesn't squander it because of social conventions. You have ladies nights at clubs where they don't pay cover charge, men usually pay more for dates than women (even if the woman picks up an occasional tab, the man typically pays more of the time than the woman). In many cases the woman never pays but the man does.
***Note about the past: Do I think women should have the right to vote? Sure, why not? Do I think it was a big deal that they didn't in the past? Not really. My thoughts are like this. Men are usually the ones who fight in wars. Men make up the majority of the police and firefighters. Men, back in the day, worked all day to buy the house and pay for everything while the woman stayed home. How could women expect to have the same voting rights as men if they weren't making the same sacrifices? Why should her vote count just as much?
Of course, human rights should always be universal. I'm talking about simple things like good treatment, food, water, shelter, etc. Voting rights should be based on what you contribute and what you sacrifice or the contributions and sacrifices expected of you. At this point, I feel like women voting is fine, but I don't feel like it is a huge injustice that once upon a time women didn't have the right to vote. Women also weren't drafted into military service. Women also were pretty much kept up and provided for by men. Especially in the old days. I think some of the old ways worked for their day.
Some of the old ways might still work for today and some might not. I think the voting issue evolved just as it should have. The way it was, was right for then. Not for now. Some of the old ways like respect for the man of the house and other old values need to be resurrected from the grave and brought back into female consciousness.
