And that kind of comparison raises fair objections about comparing apples and oranges. Working Woman magazine agrees that the gap has generally been closing. The gap even works in reverse in terms of female CEOs at mid-size advertising firms, who pull in bigger bucks than their male counterparts. On the other hand, Working Woman did find that female doctors and lawyers still make significantly less than their testosterone-charged counterparts, though the magazine's survey doesn't seem to adjust for such variables as experience. Thanks to the cruel, sexist hand of evolution, women bear children and men don't.
Mothers do earn less than both men and childless women.
As of 1991, women without children were earning about 95 percent as much as male colleagues, with moms trailing well behind. Then there's the small matter of preferences. Different people have the annoying habit of liking different things. As the Pacific Research Institute pointed out in a 1995 study , women tend to gravitate toward academic degrees and professions other than those that attract men. In particular, education is a popular discipline with women, while engineering, mathematics, and the physical sciences are more popular with men.