Feminist Friday - Wage Gap

It seems unbelievable that that the Gender Wage Gap exists. As in, I actually have a hard time believing the science. I don't understand how it can happen. I expect women to trend lower pay from choosing careers that pay less or due to maternity leave absences. However, even when statistics are adjusted for these variables it still shows up.

Article from Forbes

The Awful Truth Behind The Gender Pay Gap

It makes me wonder if it has been some unseen force in my life. I have occasionally felt underpaid, but never because I was a girl - usually due to the company I was working for, the stage I was at in my career, that not-for-profits involve some sacrifice in pay, my skill-set and industries of preference are undervalued, etc. Never because of my gender.

However, maybe I wouldn't see it, I have never been somewhere that had lots of people doing the same job as me, the statistics have never represented a male that is physically sitting beside me and getting paid more. It feels like an issue that exists only on paper and it infuriates me that these numbers keep showing up in black and white - reflecting quiet biases back to us. It so unfair that it is unfathomable. But it also seems so abstract that it is hard to believe.

Seriously, how does it even happen? I just want this issue to go away, I know it won't fix itself but I don't really know what can be done to change it. (Besides making it illegal, but isn't it already under discrimination laws?) Someone needs to fix this.