^I think that will level out and go the other way, as men get more established career wise in their thirties and women pause somewhat to have children. I remember in my early twenties, when MBNA Credit Cards had relocated to Chester and the money they were paying for team leaders in their call centre was actually quite an astonishingly amount for a job that someone dragged in from the street could be expert at in about 3 months. It was a lot more than what I was getting. I also had another taste of this in the late 90s, the company I was working for was merged with another in the Group, all the directors subsequently rewarded their secretaries, now PA's, with substantial salaries and cars, indeed, much better than my vehicle and I was on the road most of the time. But in some of those positions you can reach the height of your career in your early thirties and stagnate from then on in. But I definitely think in the early 90s, there was a state of flux, where traditional blue collar occupations (and some white collar ones) in heavy industry and manufacturing, were suddenly overtaken earning capacity by very low skill set jobs in more mundane, but lucrative sectors. At least, that's the way I perceived it at the time.

The industry I'm in, you tend not to reach the height of your career position wise until around forty-five and then plateau from then on in. I know quite a few couples where the woman is earning about the same as their male partner, but dummies like me, married for love and so that doesn't apply in my case. But it makes sense, two average wages combined equals a good wage and two good wages combined can be a very good situation to ensure ones comfort. The reality doesn't quite work like that, you always find stuff to spend money on, maintain, or buy ever bigger and better things. In my experience, doesn't matter how much you earn, there's never enough pocket money to serve your desires.

^To be honest, I don't actually see that, and ripe women of child bearing age, are still in many circumstances and organisations going to experience significant hurdles in gaining positions against male equivalent candidates for the obvious reasons. But, an ex-colleague of mine's father had a top job in a large American corporation and he had told him that he is very careful to avoid being alone with female colleagues and never has a drink ever socially with anyone, as any slight suggestion or god forbid a complaint by a female colleague and your career is history.