I’ve heard the arguments. They mostly amount to “women just don’t want to work as hard as men and make their choices accordingly“
This fails to take into account decisions made when children come along, based on likely future earning power, and sexist expectations about who will do the childcare, collections from nursery and school and who will be expected to look after them when ill.
It also fails to take into account straightforward sexism which means the workplace and working life patterns were set up when men were expected to be the main earner, which means women fit less well into many career structures.
And from personal experience, the underlying knowledge after thirty years in the workplace, that I’m simply less valued than an equally capable man, or indeed sometimes a less capable one, means I’ve simply given up. I’m not going to slog for someone who doesn’t see my worth. Of course many men would see that as sour grapes, but they haven’t had to live with it.
There was a report from a professional body related to my profession last year. Women are paid less, and given similar CVs both male and female employers would offer men more money and have higher expectations of promotion. I’d always felt that was the case, but it was the first time I’ve seen it in black and white.