Hard to live up to the expectation of being a good mother and spending months on an oil rig at the same time.

I doubt it's "expectations of being a good mother". Countries with the most liberal attitudes toward gender have some of the most extreme occupational gender disparities and vice versa.

I don't think those are what the parent was referring to as 'top tier'. Those pay well, but in both cases they are highly paid because of risk and life disruption (having to spend extended time away from home on rigs). It's my understanding that men are naturally less risk-averse, so the gender differences there seem natural to me.

I'm betting they meant CEO positions, board positions, and high ranking corporate officers.

Define “naturally”.

Meaning on average, most women list towards them. There are large differences between genders in terms of career motivations, interests etc. Proven in many studies repeatedly.

> There are large differences between genders in terms of career motivations, interests etc.

I think this would be the case for the hypothetical “party if you're a man, standing outside in the rain if you're a woman” job, too. How do you know you're describing something about the people you're measuring, as opposed to the people around them?

>Because women naturally list towards jobs that pay less,

Couldn't one then also argue that jobs women list towards get paid less? E.g. instead of asking why women gravitate to those jobs that are paid less, ask why the jobs women gravitate towards are paid less.

The fact that daycare workers (a job dominated 97% by females) earn $35k a year while carpenters, welders, and electricians (jobs dominated 98% by males) earn $80k is not a fact that I think is attributable to bigoted sexism.