The controversy of women getting paid less than men was because people thought that women IS NOT the same as men. In the past, women were looked at as property or some fragile little thing that ONLY has the job of carrying children in the family and take care of the house. Also this depends on what timeline you are looking at, but women would often have less education compared to men simply because of their gender. Women are expected to be "proper" whereas men "manly." Now in the present, some men still have that traditional thoughts like how women can not be as great as men, which is why they would be payed less.
