This is actually a thread in feminist theory, which is ignored more broadly for reasons I’m sure you can imagine.

> must be

Why do you think this?

It's an analogue of rational market theory: no asocial choice can be rationalised as a good long-term plan so there must be externalities which are causative.

I don't believe in rational market players with full knowledge and equal information any more than I believe all violent men had externalities which were causative.

But I do believe poverty and epigenetic influences can exist.

Majority of criminals are from abusive or fatherless homes. That's the externality.

I suspect the sarcasm went over your head.

I believe it was sarcasm.

There's a surprisingly prevalent, but misguided, school of thought which asserts that disparities in outcomes across gender or racial lines imply sexism or racism. This concept is closely associated with the "tabula rasa" or "blank slate" theory[0]. Thomas Sowell wrote an entire book that debunks this idea ("Discrimination and Disparities").

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabula_rasa

What's interesting to me is that we're apparently letting a completely ludicrous, unsupported claim to go unchallenged.

Then you would notice that the averages between men and women on some things like height are significantly different even though it's easy to find individual counter-examples.