> Additionally, another possible explanator of our findings is that women earn utility from pursuing the work of doctors above the utility that they would earn from their work as PAs and that this counteracts the small financial disadvantage of entering the medical profession. There is some evidence in other fields that individuals are willing to accept a wage decrement in order to obtain a “more interesting ”position" (see, e.g., Stern 2004). It is difficult to dispute this hypothesis.

The nonwage job utility hypothesis is one that is typically completely ignored when discussing wage gaps. I'm not sure what proportion of which wage gaps are explained by this - and with how politically charge the topic is, I doubt there will ever be a confident consensus range. Intuitively, most people have some extent to which they're more willing to work a more prestigious, less difficult, less time-consuming, more fulfilling, etc job even if it pays worse. It's a lot easier to measure wages, though, which makes them a particularly tempting fixation.