Pay and working conditions should not be gender biased, they can be experience & competence bias and in fact should be, although judging by the number of incompetent managers i have worked with over the years this is clearly not the case !!!!
I reckon we're only one labour government away from not being allowed to recruit on basis of competence. Mind you, that labour government is looking at least 10 years off right now.

I think the gender inequality in pay rarely comes from two people doing the same job on different salaries (although this does happen and usually in favour of us fellas) but rather about the fact that higher paying roles are usually dominated by men and men tend to get promoted further up the company chain. There's a huge discrepancy between the number of male and female CEOs in fortune 500 companies, for example. And a huge discrepancy in the makeup of the house of commons (I don't know about your side of the pond but I'm willing to bet it's similar). There are far more men in the professions (sciences, law, accountancy, doctors etc.) than there are women. The net effect is that, on average, women make less than men, just not necessarilly in the same jobs. I'm sure some of that comes from gender discrimination but most probably comes from biological and social considerations.

I'm a firm believer in gender equality. That's why I think women should be allowed to work overtime, so they can make as much as the men.