Interesting reply to the article that was in the comments section:
This article (as usual) misquotes and mis-cites quite a few statistics. For instance, it says that women were more likely to get a subprime mortgage than "men of similar income" - with no recognition that income is only one factor in determining mortgage rates; creditworthiness is a big part of it, as is the downpayment put forth. If those things vary by sex (and it's certainly possible that they do; women may well be more likely to carry revolving debt for things like clothing purchases, shoes, etc.), then the underlying point is seriously undermined. The same paragraph says women are 41% more likely to end up with the worst subprime loans (but doesn't even bother to say "of similar incomes", because that's likely not the case at all). Consider the number of women who are awarded a house in divorce, but then must make the payments themselves and/or refinance the mortgage based on their own income, instead of their former joint income. Of course the rate's going to jump - the bank's suddenly in a riskier position.
Likewise, that old saw about 78 cents on the dollar; it's true only if you look at all working women vs. all working men, NOT adjusted for experience, not adjusted for education, not adjusted for position. In other words, it's a gross aggregate number: the total national income for full-time working women is 78% of the total national income for full-time working men. It reflects a preponderance (still) of women in jobs that are lower-paying and which require less education; and it reflects that women are much more likely than men to take a break from their careers in order to have and raise children (and thus delay the "big" advances in careers that tend to happen when a worker is between 30 and 45). It's also skewed by the fact that yes, at the highest corporate levels (Fortune 500 CEO's) and in the highest levels of finance/banking, women are largely absent, and those huge megasalaries at the top skew the men's rate upwards considerably.
Take out the outliers at the top, do a position-to-position comparison between people of similar experience, education, and longevity in most white-collar jobs, and you'll find the income gap is almost nil. The problem isn't (as suggested) that women get paid 78 cents for doing the exact same job as a man who gets a dollar; the problem is that too many women have either chosen, or are stuck in, careers that pay less for both sexes - such as teaching, serving in restaurants, retail, and so forth.
The answer is better educational opportunities for women AND women being willing to do what it takes to stay equal and competitive: working 60 hour weeks at a trading desk, no six-month leaves to have a child and stay home and bond with it, missing out on most PTA and other school functions - the things men did for decades and accepted as part of the cost of earning that high salary.
