When you compare salaries for men and women who are similarly qualified and working the same job, no major gender wage gap exists

Sure, but we also can't ignore examples of when they aren't. It might not happen enough to be the entire cause of the wage gap, and there might be plenty of jobs, careers, or companies that provide as counter-examples, but that doesn't mean it never happens or that it's an issue to be ignored.

And even within the same job, where I've seen people use the excuse of "women are less confident and are less likely to ask for raises/negotiate for a higher base wage", why is that? Are we, again, saying women are naturally unconfident, or is it possible there is a societal reason that would lead them to feel less able to actually get that raise, more afraid to even ask?

I'd like to point out real quick, because I know it often doesn't come off this way, that this isn't really a game of "blaming men for all women's problems", that men are consciously trying to force women to make less money or have less power or whatever. It's about trying to take a step back from the society we've all been immersed in all our lives and might not be totally aware of (like how we don't really notice the air around us anymore than a fish notices water, that's just how it is, it's hard to imagine it differently), examining the differences between men and women and asking "why is this here?" "do we really need this anymore?". Our modern society stems from past societies, where men were quite consciously "above" women, it's not startling to think that our past still plays a heavy hand in our present. But because modern society WANTS things to be equal, we seem to have an aversion to things that might suggest otherwise. And ignoring them only ensures that things won't change.

/r/dataisbeautiful Thread Parent Link - payscale.com