Or rather, another (better) way to ask the question, is "Why are the obsessive, power-hungry, workaholics who hold these positions, primarily men?" Rather than "Why do men do better than women?
Look, I’m pretty much an obsessive workaholic myself (getting better now that we’ve got kids) and I was making about 5x of what my wife was making when I met her. She’s got a 4 year degree from a nice private university and I went to state university.
She is absolutely every bit as smart and hard working as I am, but she never wanted a career in an office.
In our first few years together I helped her with her resume, suggested all the work she was doing would absolutely qualify her for making at least twice as much as she was making and she just didn’t want to play the game. She wanted to be a mom, and didn’t even want to play the game until motherhood showed up.
If she did what I do every day (at now almost 20x what she was making when I met her) she’d jump out a window.
Conversely I wouldn’t take double the pay I’m making to stay home with the kids, I love ‘em, but jeez- I don’t know how my wife does it.
She would definitely not consider herself doing better if we swapped places. And I think that’s the key. Man or woman, some people just don’t have the same goals, and running a company and making lots of money don’t necessarily play any part in what they aspire to do.