Male deaths on the job is one indication of why men make more.
If the job is dangerous, uncomfortable, nasty, or involves having to spend long times away from home, then most of the time there’s a man doing it.
I ended the discussion with a simple observation: "Go back and look at all the news clips from 9/11. How many female firefighters did you see lugging 50 pounds of gear up into those towers before they collapsed?"