If nursing and elementary education paid the same as STEM
Ah! Maybe now we're getting somewhere.
Go on, ask me if I got into computers in the 1980s because my crystal ball predicted the dot com boom. I'd dearly like to give my seven year old self the credit for being some Warren Buffet Baby, anticipating the growth of the internet.
It's not true, though. I didn't get into my STEM career for money. I got into it because of passion. And that (along with grace and luck) is what I attribute my success to: I love what I do. Nobody and nothing was going to keep me away from computers, from the thing I loved. Not even the inability of my parents to afford anything but outdated second-hand computers. Certainly not by something as trivial as glancing at my ass as I walked out the door.
Show me a doctor who is a doctor for the money, and I will show you a doctor who isn't as good as another doctor who does the same job for the love of craft. The same thing holds true with woodworkers, sculptors, chefs, or convenience store clerks.
If you're trying to get or be involved with a STEM field, and you aren't experiencing the success that you see others experiencing, maybe it isn't because of some deep-rooted gender bias creeping into every person with whom you interact. Maybe it's because you're in it for the wrong reasons.