So the theory is that women are concerned about their reputations, so they ask for less than their male counterparts. But with the people that a female candidate would be working with, only the hiring manager would (should) know. I think this has more to do with the rather recent changes of women in the workplace than women managing their reputation, but what do I know?

> You have it exactly backwards. In a competitive market, hiring managers have every incentive to negotiate workers to take lower salaries

I never stated anything to the contrary. You're talking about profit-maximizing behavior that we all engage in everyday. What I said had to do with deliberate discrimination, which can only be profitable if the market participants all agree to it.