Anyone else notice that women often have been paid according to what they “need” and men are paid what their work is “worth”? Its not universal, but the philosophy lingers.

Elementary school teachers in 1970 were frequently assumed to be young single women living with their parents, or perhaps an older married woman who therefore didn’t need enough money to be able to pay rent. I recall hospitals a couple decades ago trying to solve the nursing shortage with all sorts of incentives that didn’t involve paying more.