I was raised by a single mom who made a fraction of the salary that men in her office earned. It was harder in other ways for her also as overt sexism was not just tolerated, it was the rule.
It hurts me to see that today my home town is the second poorest in the nation in this study;
http://www.businessinsider.com/gender-pay-gap-in-us-cities-2016-6 My sister and I were lucky to manage a life at the bottom rung in a healthy middle class. Almost all the traumatized children I’ve worked with as a volunteer CASA guardian ad-Litem were not that lucky. Poverty breeds problems the rest of us don’t have to experience. Gender equity in wages would go a long way in making life better for at risk children.