Do you think doesn't actually feel discouraged from pursuing a higher-paying career because of her gender alone?

Very possibly, but those feeling are completely unfounded. My family is exuberantly wealthy, well connected, and white. gender is the only possible thing that could hurt her. it isn't like their are signs saying "women need not apply". an example in my family is my wife is a Yale lawyer, the same as me, she started at the same job even as me, 7 year later she is making just over $250k a year and had faced no signification hurdles. She too firmly believes this sex discrimination and wage gap problems are total BS. I feel this attitude is largely why she is so successful. I received a promotion because of my last name and make far more than her, yet she will even say that it isn't at all unfair because that is simply how life works. That is a belief system far more people need to have. I have never met a women who was hugely successful that spent any time talking about or worrying about why life isn't fair.

Do you think you know her own personal feelings better than she does?

Of course not, doesn't mean her feeling have any basis of reality.

You're a man, right?

I prefer Apache attack helicopter, but for the sake of this conversation we can go with man.

Would you say that you feel encouraged to be a nurse?

I wouldn't say I feel discouraged because of my gender, the most I would say I would worry about is not getting along with my colleagues, but even then I find people in the same profession seem to usually have enough in common for them to work well together in most cases, and in the cases where they don't I feel gender plays a minor role if any in it.

but even if you do, you'd still feel that discouragement and it could easily wear on you. I can't even imagine living that kind of life, with that kind of unfair judgment and pressure being placed on me when it wouldn't be if I were a different gender. But that's how it is for women in many career fields, especially those that pay well like business and technology.

This goes back to the argument that it is mostly in their head. Which I acknowledge is a real problem, but not one that has a straight forward solution as it is mostly psychological.